Doctors in B.C. can now prescribe heroin

[Gixxer]

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/doctors- ... ibe-heroin

[Trigger69]

As much as I know there is a problem with heroin I can not support this. I don't even like the methadone treatment. I say there has to be another alternative. This all said I am not saying I have the answer but prescribing this dirty nasty drug seems off to me.

[coffeeFreak]

B.C. doctors given Health Canada approval to prescribe heroin
ANDREA WOO
VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Sep. 20 2013, 11:07 PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Sep. 20 2013, 11:10 PM EDT

After years of petitioning by health officials in British Columbia, Health Canada has authorized some B.C. doctors to prescribe heroin for select patients who have failed to respond to conventional opioid addiction treatments. But within moments of the authorization, Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose blasted the department’s decision, saying it flies in the face of the Conservative government’s anti-drug policy, and vowed to ensure it never happens again.

Health Canada on Friday authorized doctors to prescribe heroin to around 15 patients, The Globe and Mail has learned. The doctors had applied to Health Canada under its Special Access Programme (SAP), which grants doctors access to non-marketed or otherwise unapproved drugs for patients with “serious or life-threatening conditions when conventional therapies have failed, are unsuitable or unavailable,” according to a description on Health Canada’s website.

Ms. Ambrose said in a statement the decision simply “allows [the addicts] to continue to have access to heroin for their addiction even though other safe treatments for heroin addiction, such as methadone, are available.”

The doctors had recently renewed their calls for allowing prescription heroin in light of the ongoing SALOME trial, a three-year project launched by researchers from Providence Health Care and the University of British Columbia to determine whether hydromorphone – a powerful but legal opiate – is as effective as diacetylmorphine (prescription heroin) in helping severely addicted heroin users.

A previous study (NAOMI) by the same researchers, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, had concluded prescription heroin is a safe and effective treatment for the small subsection of addicts who did not benefit from conventional treatments such as methadone. Participants who took prescription heroin were more likely to stay in treatment, reduce illegal drug use and avoid illegal activities, researchers found.

In both studies, doctors were concerned by the lack of an exit strategy once participants had completed their 13-month trials. While some patients could not differentiate between hydromorphone and prescription heroin – suggesting hydromorphone could be an effective, legal substitute for heroin – doctors are reluctant to prescribe the former as NAOMI is not yet complete. That means there is no conclusive evidence to show hydromorphone – a pain medication – is an effective treatment for heroin addiction.

Patricia Daly, chief medical health officer and vice-president of public health at Vancouver Coastal Health, was one of several doctors who wrote to Health Canada.

“I’ve written to Health Canada and asked that [the patients] be allowed to get injectable diacetylmorphine – that’s injectable heroin – because we’ve demonstrated in a research study, published in the New England Journal, that’s an effective treatment,” she told The Globe earlier this month.

Ms. Ambrose said Health Canada’s authorization “is in direct opposition to the government’s anti-drug policy and violates the spirit and intent of the SAP.

“I am taking immediate action to protect the integrity of the SAP and ensure this does not happen again,” she said in the statement. “The SAP was designed to treat unusual cases and medical emergencies; it was not intended as a way to give illicit drugs to drug addicts.”

Ms. Ambrose’s office said she would not be doing interviews on Friday, choosing instead to “let the statement stand.”

It is unclear whether the minister could reverse Health Canada’s decision. Her office said she will be looking at all options.

Scott Bernstein, a lawyer for the Pivot Legal Society, which is representing 22 SALOME patients – four of whom were approved for prescription heroin on Friday – as well as the B.C. Association of People on Methadone, said Health Canada’s decision will increase stability in those patients’ lives by moving the drug into a medical environment.

“Minister Ambrose’s statement reflects that the federal government is more than willing to wade into medical decisions when it suits their political needs, regardless of the cost to marginalized individuals and public health,” he said. “Evidence should drive policy decisions, not ideology and stigma against drug users.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-doctors-given-health-canada-approval-to-prescribe-heroin/article14450664/

[maryjane48]

legal drugs is coming

[JLives]

It has better results and saves us money over the long term. I am OK with this. Drugs are a health issue, not a criminal one.

[maryjane48]

Drugs are a health issue, not a criminal one.

unless your a conservative , but i agree 100 percent

[WhatThe]

As much as I know there is a problem with heroin I can not support this. I don't even like the methadone treatment. I say there has to be another alternative. This all said I am not saying I have the answer but prescribing this dirty nasty drug seems off to me.

Why not? Why would you question a treatment a doctor has prescribed? Why do you really think it's any of your business and in need of your support? You have no answers but would deny someone treatment based on your beliefs, likes or dislikes? Pretty sketchy.

[WhatThe]

The conservatives and their ideological rhetoric absolutely infuriates me. It does not matter what side of the fence one sits when the evidence points to a course of action, that is the direction sound policy should take. Their steadfast refusal to listen to evidence should infuriate everyone.

“Minister Ambrose’s statement reflects that the federal government is more than willing to wade into medical decisions when it suits their political needs, regardless of the cost to marginalized individuals and public health,” he said. “Evidence should drive policy decisions, not ideology and stigma against drug users.”

[Prestige Mike]

Very interesting. I'm surprised Health Canada is so brave to try something as controversial as this. I think this is a step in the right direction.

[bob vernon]

The problem with addictive drugs isn't that a person needs their fixes, it's the crimes that they will commit to get the money to buy the drugs at inflated prices on the illegal market. If a heroin addict gets his drugs legally, they can hold down a job and lead an otherwise normal life.

Society would be far better off if existing addicts got their drugs legally at a clinic and society spent all that enforcement money, currently wasted on the war on drugs, on education. Attacking this problem through education would have far more success than what's happening now. Taking out the profit motive for dealers will make them disappear. Brute force will never work.

[twobits]

The conservatives and their ideological rhetoric absolutely infuriates me.

I think that is a rather wide brush stroke. I would think that fiscal conservatives like myself see the logic in policies such as these. I can reduce this to a simple cost benefit analysis that says it is the smart thing to do. This is about diverting people with a medical issue away from the underworld of drugs and the crime it spawns because they are forced, through addiction, to commit acts they normally would not do if an open support system is available. This is a win for society both in saving money in the long term and addressing serious mental health issues.
Many of the same arguments can be made for MJ and one of my serious disappointments with Harper. While I support the conservative fiscal and economic policy, he needs to get off the moral high horse in these areas. I wouldn't be surprised if he spanks Health Canada over this.

[waynetyea]

they are addicted let them have it for free or they will steal from you and me to pay a very high price to get it illegally. they may even be able to keep a job if they have a free supply at home when they need it. ps our insurance rates for theft may one day go down in price as a result. ps police forces could spend thier time on other cases instead of busting these people. what do you care about what they do at home? mind your own business.

[Trigger69]

Why not? Why would you question a treatment a doctor has prescribed? Why do you really think it's any of your business and in need of your support? You have no answers but would deny someone treatment based on your beliefs, likes or dislikes? Pretty sketchy.

Why would I question what a doc prescribes? Well for one because I question anything that would possibly go into my body.
I think its my business because its my tax dollars being used for its support as well as research, not as you claim my likes or dislikes.
Not so sketchy now?

[Queen K]

The problem with addictive drugs isn't that a person needs their fixes, it's the crimes that they will commit to get the money to buy the drugs at inflated prices on the illegal market. If a heroin addict gets his drugs legally, they can hold down a job and lead an otherwise normal life.

Society would be far better off if existing addicts got their drugs legally at a clinic and society spent all that enforcement money, currently wasted on the war on drugs, on education. Attacking this problem through education would have far more success than what's happening now. Taking out the profit motive for dealers will make them disappear. Brute force will never work.

Ordinarily I'd agree.

But this is not the case when talking about severely compromised people who are not about to become long term drug addicts shooting up in back alleys and breaking into your car. Instead we are talking about people who's health issues have become so crippling they'd likely not be able to get out of bed without the use of a wheelchair, cane, or walker. Their body is so much in pain that the least little touch with a wash cloth is overwhelming. They aren't going to a job and a normal life is a distant memory.

Usually these people have developed cancer and it's so advanced that they think of becoming a "drug addict" so much as just "manage the pain." Pain management is not about being a "drug addict" in this sense. Or are in the last crippling stages of some other hideous disease such as Huntingtons, or LG, or MS or Parkinsons, or name something. It's Dr. prescribed and yes, if they chose to over do it, then they've made a choice. Their choice is not in anyone's else's faces except for the foolish (there's going to be a cure any second now!) or the selfish (live like this forever, just for me, because I can't let go.) Sorry, seen it all.

A welcome sane choice. NOW, if only EVERYBODY would learn to get on board with removing their names, addresses and phone numbers from prescription bottles, pill packs, also known as blisterpacks, and from patch boxes. Dumpster divers look for anything to make their living, do you really want them knowing who's got Oxy? or the equivalent thereof?

[Gixxer]

Why would I question what a doc prescribes? Well for one because I question anything that would possibly go into my body.
I think its my business because its my tax dollars being used for its support as well as research, not as you claim my likes or dislikes.
Not so sketchy now?

Because you question what doctors prescribe, and you question anything that goes into your body, other people should be denied a new treatment? What a selfish attitude. Your tax dollars? At present how much of your tax dollars goes towards court costs, policing costs, jails, and medical expenses for these users? A doctor prescription would be a fraction of that cost.