Study: Heroin Maintenance Cuts Crime, Improves Health

Heroin addicts enrolled in programs that provide them with the drug for free may commit fewer crimes and be more likely to enroll in addiction treatment programs, according to a new study by researcher Peter Reuter.

The Baltimore Sun reported Feb. 8 that Reuter, a drug-policy researcher at the University of Maryland at College Park, studied heroin-maintenance programs in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Vancouver, B.C. Program costs were high, participation low, and outcomes were mixed, Reuter found. But in some cases results were impressive.

In Switzerland, for example, 60 percent of those who left a heroin maintenance program sought addiction treatment, and crime involvement among participants in a German program fell from an average of 15.6 days to 2.5 days at the end of a 12-month period.

The study was funded by Baltimore’s Abell Foundation. Reuter said that Baltimore, with its large population of heroin users, might be a good location for a U.S. pilot heroin-maintenance program.

“It is a sensible innovation to consider,” he said. “I am not a passionate advocate for it, but I do think someone should try it in the U.S. It has enough plausibility that it’s worth trying.”

Baltimore officials, however, dismissed the suggestion. “I think it would be a mistake to pursue an expensive and unproven idea when we need more resources for effective drug treatment,” said city health commissioner Joshua M. Sharfstein.

“Most studies clearly show they help but using public funds to fund something like this would be a whole other level of politics, especially in this economy,” said Christopher Welsh, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland medical school.

Peter Beilenson, a former Baltimore health commissioner, added, “The problem is if you are going to do any reasonable drug-policy reform, this heroin thing is such a red flag that it takes all the attention away. It makes it look like anyone who is interested in drug policy reform is crazy.”

Former Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke once opposed heroin maintenance, but now says that the idea should at least be discussed. “Without the kind of discussion that the Abell Foundation is trying to encourage, it would simply be too shocking to the public to get approved,” he said.