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Support Us URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n582/a05.html

Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap

Votes: 1

Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/NhezBWLw

Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jun 2008

Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)

Copyright: 2008 Times Colonist

Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html

Website: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481

Author: Brett Bundale, Canwest News Service

Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)



ADDICTS BECAME STABLE ON PRESCRIBED HEROIN



For Many, Intake Of Drugs Declined



For many hardcore heroin addicts, the hustling begins first thing in the morning. They wake up with one thing in mind: how to get their next fix.



Some turn to panhandling, prostitution or crime to come up with the cash.



But a heroin study seems to have changed that for some Montreal addicts.



North America's first research study on medically prescribed heroin will wrap up in a few weeks. The goal of the North American Opiate Medication Initiative, funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, is to examine harm reduction and the treatment of illicit drug use.



The $8-million clinical trial started in 2005 in Montreal and Vancouver, the site of Insite, North America's only safe-injection site.



As the project winds down, Quebec is considering setting up a safe-injection facility in Montreal, Health Minister Philippe Couillard said Wednesday.



But unlike a safe-injection site, where addicts inject themselves with their own illegal street drugs under the supervision of a nurse, the research study uses medically prescribed pharmaceutical-grade narcotics.



Although the findings will not be published until the fall, the preliminary results are promising, said Suzanne Brissette, one of the study's doctors and the lead investigator in Montreal.



In Montreal, addicts were allowed to come to the clinic three times a day to get their fix. They had to have repeatedly failed the standard treatment of oral methadone, a morphine-like substitute for heroin.



"What was surprising was that as their lives gained stability, many came only twice a day," Brissette said.



In addition, the maximum heroin dose allowed was about 400 milligrams, but on average, addicts chose to take only 170 milligrams at a time.



"Because the heroin was free, people thought an escalation in use would occur. But this didn't happen," Brissette said.



Many users also put on weight and some managed to find jobs, Brissette said.



"Instead of worrying about their next fix, they had time to worry about far more important issues, like their health and finding a job or an apartment," Brissette said.



Martin Schechter, principal investigator in Vancouver, has said in the past that women have thanked researchers because they no longer have to sell their bodies for drugs.



Although the study has a team of doctors, nurses and social workers to counsel participants about their options once the study ends, the future for the most serious addicts is grim.



The study required an exemption from the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin



