Fight Heroin with Heroin, Study Says

Less use of street drugs and less criminal activity were among the benefits of giving heroin addicts daily injections of the drug along with counseling and other services, according to a new study from Great Britain’s National Addiction Centre.

CNN reported Oct. 20 that researcher John Strang and colleagues said that allowing addicts to inject heroin in a safe and supervised setting, combined with intensive counseling and treatment, yielded positive results after just six weeks. Use of street drugs dropped 75 percent, and program participants committed two-thirds fewer crimes aimed to getting drugs.

The study group was comprised of addicts who had failed at other types of treatment.

The upfront cost of the program is about $22,000 per patient per year, but, “From the cost point of view, if you actually look at the bigger picture, cheap treatment isn’t always good treatment. If cheap treatment doesn’t deliver any benefit then it’s particularity bad value,” Strang said.