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 motaman
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Registered: 12/18/02
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 Jack Straw calls for heroin on prescription [UK] 
#11095512 - 09/20/09 05:45 PM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Jack Straw calls for heroin on prescription
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, has called for the NHS to give out heroin on prescription to addicts where other forms of treatment have failed.
By Duncan Gardham
Published: 5:34PM BST 20 Sep 2009
Justice secretary Jack Straw has called for imaginative solutions to tackling to the problems of drug addiction
He called for “imaginative” solutions to hard-drug abuse and said there could be “huge benefits” to issuing the drug to chronic addicts.
At the moment addicts can be prescribed heroin substitutes designed to wean them off the drug, but the idea of prescribing the drug itself is aimed at keeping long-term addicts away from drug dealers and crime.
“For the most problematic heroin users it may be the best means of reducing the harm they do themselves, and of stamping out the crime and disorder they inflict on the community," said Mr Straw.
The Justice Secretary is the first cabinet minister to get involved in the debate following the results of a pilot scheme involving 127 heroin addicts in three cities, published last week.
The trial, which involved users injecting themselves under medical supervision in London, Brighton and Darlington, showed that crimes committed by addicts who had been prescribed heroin dropped by two thirds after six months.
Mr Straw said prescription heroin was “no magic bullet” but claimed it could reduce the £15 billion a year cost of the abuse of hard drugs.
The trials were set up in 2002 by David Blunkett, the then home secretary, but Mr Straw is the first cabinet minister to endorse prescribing the drug.
Some drug experts have warned that a “state-sponsored fix” does not wean addicts off the drug and Paul Hayes, head of the government’s drug treatment service, warned prescription heroin would only benefit a “very small proportion” of the 160,000 addicts in treatment.
Mr Hayes, of the National Treatment Agency, said the trials only involved chronic long-term addicts who had failed to respond to other treatments and added: "No one is suggesting this should be the frontline treatment for heroin addiction.”
The pilot schemes used pharmaceutical diamorphine imported from Switzerland in a supervised clinic prescribed by a doctor.
Three-quarters of users "substantially reduced" their use of street drugs, and their spending on drugs fell from £300 to £50 a week. The number of crimes they committed fell from 1,731 in three months to 547 in six months.
Professor John Strang, who led the trials, said the scheme had helped avoid expensive prison sentences among a group that were the hardest to treat.
The independent expert group running the pilot scheme has recommended that it should be expanded to other cities.
The Swiss voted by a two-thirds majority last year to ratify their successful heroin prescription programme which has been running for 15 years in special clinics.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is considering a change in the law to allow needle exchanges to give out aluminium foil to addicts to encourage them to smoke the drug in a method known as “chasing the dragon” instead of injecting it.
Harry Shapiro of Drugscope, which represents 800 drug projects, said: "It's important to do everything possible to discourage Britain's 300,000 problem drug users from injecting their drugs, and we should allow injecting heroin users to be provided with foil as part of a harm-reduction programme."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6211891/Jack-Straw-calls-for-heroin-on-prescription.html
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http://heffter.org
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