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OrganizedChaos
Stoned....



Registered: 04/19/09
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Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction
#10913779 - 08/22/09 05:00 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/health/research/20heroin.html?ref=health
[This is an interesting approach, more like maintenance, but could help some, and lesson effects society is subjected to]
Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction Published: August 19, 2009
The safest and most effective treatment for hard-core heroin addicts who fail to control their habit using methadone or other treatments may be their drug of choice, in prescription form, researchers are reporting after the first rigorous test of the approach performed in North America. Skip to next paragraph Related Times Topics: Heroin
For years, European countries like Switzerland and the Netherlands have allowed doctors to provide some addicts with prescription heroin as an alternative to buying drugs on the street. The treatment is safe and keeps addicts out of trouble, studies have found, but it is controversial — not only because the drug is illegal but also because policy makers worry that treating with heroin may exacerbate the habit.
The study, appearing in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, may put some of those concerns to rest.
“It showed that heroin works better than methadone in this population of users, and patients will be more willing to take it,” said Dr. Joshua Boverman, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.
Perhaps the biggest weakness of methadone treatment, Dr. Boverman said, is that “many patients don’t want to take it; they just don’t like it.”
In the study, researchers in Canada enrolled 226 addicts with longstanding habits who had failed to improve using other methods, including methadone maintenance therapy. Doctors consider methadone, a chemical cousin to heroin that prevents withdrawal but does not induce the same high, to be the best treatment for narcotic addiction. A newer drug, buprenorphine, is also effective.
The Canadian researchers randomly assigned about half of the addicts to receive methadone and the other half to receive daily injections of diacetylmorphine, the active ingredient in heroin. After a year, 88 percent of those receiving the heroin compound were still in the study, and two-thirds of them had significantly curtailed their illicit activities, including the use of street drugs. In the methadone group, 54 percent were still in the study and 48 percent had curbed illicit activities.
“The main finding is that, for this group that is generally written off, both methadone and prescription heroin can provide real benefits,” said the senior author, Martin T. Schechter, a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia.
Those taking the heroin injections did suffer more side effects; there were 10 overdoses and six seizures. But Dr. Schechter said there was no evidence of abuse. The average dosage the subjects took was 450 milligrams, well below the 1,000-milligram maximum level.
About 663,000 Americans are regular users of heroin, according to government estimates. The researchers said 15 percent to 25 percent of them were heavy users and could benefit from prescription heroin. That is, if they ever were to get the chance. Heroin is an illegal, Schedule 1 substance, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and serves no legitimate medical purpose. That designation is unlikely to change soon, researchers suspect.
In an editorial with the article, Virginia Berridge of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine concluded, “The rise and fall of methods of treatment in this controversial area owe their rationale to evidence, but they also often owe more to the politics of the situation.”
-------------------- It is what it is, Let it be!
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual




Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,613
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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: OrganizedChaos]
#10913827 - 08/22/09 05:10 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Let the stigma and demonizing die. Let the logic and evidence take hold.
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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OrganizedChaos
Stoned....



Registered: 04/19/09
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Thats what I'm saying.
For whatever reason individuals get addicted to these substances there should be some way of helping them.
This has been shown in places that favor treatment instead of criminalization.
I doubt most addicts want to be an addict.
-------------------- It is what it is, Let it be!
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual




Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,613
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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: OrganizedChaos]
#10914307 - 08/22/09 06:25 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
OrganizedChaos said: I doubt most addicts want to be an addict.
No one wants to be an addict my friend.
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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Suggs4Drugs
Newb


Registered: 04/30/09
Posts: 58
Loc: Arkansas
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An addiction is a state of mind. Thtas why only certain people can be addicts.
-------------------- Ive never had problems with Drugs, Ive had problems with the police.
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual




Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,613
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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: Suggs4Drugs]
#10914407 - 08/22/09 06:36 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Suggs4Drugs said: An addiction is a state of mind. Thtas why only certain people can be addicts.
False statement. VERY false statement. Anyone can become an addict.
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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Dutchie3k
Psychic Drifter



Registered: 12/16/08
Posts: 348
Loc: this hazy bubble, state o...
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Addiction is a lifestyle. Precisely that. Like your job and the rest of your life rolled into one.
It's breaking the lifestyle, per se, that is the real mother of trouble in breaking an addiction, even with substances that have erm..prominent physical manifestations in withdrawal..i.e. dope.
I've seen time and time again cocaine addicts/users that slip back into the coked out life after months for no reason but that they wetre suddenly in that type of atmosphere.
It's all choice.
-------------------- "The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others - the living - are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later"
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OrganizedChaos
Stoned....



Registered: 04/19/09
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Quote:
Cognitive_Shift said:
Quote:
Suggs4Drugs said: An addiction is a state of mind. Thtas why only certain people can be addicts.
False statement. VERY false statement. Anyone can become an addict.
QFT
I've seen prominent individuals get addicted to pain medication, and they were simply following instructions. There are many situations, and it gets to a point where it is not a choice, one can die without the substance.
-------------------- It is what it is, Let it be!
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual




Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,613
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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: Dutchie3k]
#10914789 - 08/22/09 07:33 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Its not all choice at all. Its not a life style. People choose life styles, people don't choose to become addicts, it just happens. Just like people don't choose to get in car accidents but it happens.
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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mofo
Hobby Jingoist


Registered: 04/05/08
Posts: 2,232
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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: OrganizedChaos]
#10915863 - 08/22/09 09:33 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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"hey, I know how we can get them to stop taking heroin. Lets give them...heroin." 
sorry, it just sounds funny to me.
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sputnik
booya
Registered: 07/18/09
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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: mofo]
#10917780 - 08/23/09 03:09 AM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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arg im a fucking addict!
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smokescreen
80's Transformer



Registered: 08/13/09
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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: Suggs4Drugs]
#10917895 - 08/23/09 03:35 AM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Suggs4Drugs said: An addiction is a state of mind. Thtas why only certain people can be addicts.
I don't want to start beef here keep that in mind. Almost any human being who consumes an opiate daily or even every other day for about 2 weeks can become physically addicted. Now even if they don't want to keep taking the drug, their body craves it and punishes them with horrible withdrawal symptoms. Your statement may apply to cocaine and methamphetamine which are more psychologically addictive, but opiates are different my friend! This is chemical and physical, not in their heads. Once again not wanting to start beef here, I speak of personal experience.
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"Let's get together and feel alright" 
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magicgreenbeans
Stranger



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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: smokescreen]
#10918188 - 08/23/09 06:16 AM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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i mean, ive never done heroin myself. but if im not mistaken isnt a half gram of heroin a bit much. though i guess for an addicted user who is getting treated may need more. but wouldnt stepping that dose down really curtail the overdoses and seizures? Maybe it was done to prevent overly beneficial results?
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pasucks
Stranger


Registered: 03/15/09
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The average dosage the subjects took was 450 milligrams, well below the 1,000-milligram maximum level.
Damn thats an average dose of a half a gram of pure Heroin! Even at my worst a gram shot of descent dope would get me rocked, I thought they would give them just enough to get well not high but their def getting their nod on from a 5 bag shot of pharmaceutical grade DIZ!
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istandalone
the clit commander



Registered: 04/30/09
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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: pasucks]
#10920440 - 08/23/09 02:57 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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i'd gladly give up my bupe script for a heroin script, for more reasons then the obvious.
-------------------- Now he's Johnny Hammersticks hammerin' away like he's friggin' Tommy Noble
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Adamist
ℚṲℰϟ✞ЇѺℵ ℛ∃Åʟḯ†У



Registered: 11/23/01
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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: istandalone]
#10923665 - 08/23/09 11:09 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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I've never done heroin, but I was on methadone for over a year and I can say from experience that it's one hell of an addictive chemical... The withdrawal symptoms lasted over a month for me, and many people say methadone withdrawal can be worse than heroin itself.
So yeah, if methadone is legal, I can't see why heroin itself shouldn't be...
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{ { { ṧ◎ηḯ¢ αʟ¢ℌ℮мƴ } } }
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deCypher



Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Quote:
Cognitive_Shift said: Its not all choice at all. Its not a life style. People choose life styles, people don't choose to become addicts, it just happens. Just like people don't choose to get in car accidents but it happens.
Perhaps people don't choose to become addicts, but they can sure as hell choose not to stay as one.
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
 
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Adamist
ℚṲℰϟ✞ЇѺℵ ℛ∃Åʟḯ†У



Registered: 11/23/01
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Re: Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction [Re: deCypher]
#10929836 - 08/24/09 09:06 PM (14 years, 8 months ago) |
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The idea of total free will becomes murkier when you really consider the predicament of an opiate addict... The body & brain crave these chemicals because it has stopped producing it's own painkillers. The body & unconscious mind will go to great lengths to make "improvements" to it's health; to remain functional at the very least... To quit a hardcore opiate addiction you have to literally make your conscious will stronger than bother your body AND your subconscious mind, because both will more than likely work against you... And that is why most people have such trouble kicking it 100% on their own. I've quit opiates many times in the relatively short time period I've used, and I think the longest I've been able to go was 6, maybe 8 months! Because no longer how long you wait and no matter how happy you are with your life, it will always be calling to you... the euphoria from the beginning, when you were still innocently experimenting. It's hard to beat!
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{ { { ṧ◎ηḯ¢ αʟ¢ℌ℮мƴ } } }
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