Quote (GTL @ Feb 8 2010 05:08pm)
What I took away from the article is that these heroin maintenance centre's attempt to turn an addiction into manageable daily routine. With this attempt I think they mean to try and step away from addiction towards something more habitualized. I certainly don't understand or know the medical implications of such an endeavor but looking at it from a subjective point of view, one can derive the intentions and preferred outcome to be laudable.
speaking from a point of reference where i have first hand experience, the problem with heroin is that its half life is about 4 hours. methadone has a half life of around 12 hours. so in terms of MAINTENANCE, one dose a day is a lot more realistically realized using the drug that will allow the person from bottoming into full blown withdrawal before thier next dose. if you are trying to maintain heroin users by allowing them to inject heroin, it can really only work the way a maintenance regimen was invisioned is if you either allow more than one visit per day to the "heroin clinic" or to "trust" a junkie with a take home supply of heroin. i personally think that a real junkie would shoot the shit up as soon as they felt the need, not allowing for a stabilization of the addiction process that would be the only way a user could make the transformation from a rabid junkie to someone that wants to get on with life, but admits the drugs is stronger than they are. i know in england they give the users heroin to take home. to a certain extent, the main impetus of this program is to take the criminal element out of your life, and to eliminate the panic of a street addict that eventually gets caught up in all kinds of bad situations trying to maintain his drug supply. its a tough situation, and 2 percent of heroin users quit totally for life with no relapses. at least it was last time i checked and GTL you are a smart man. your take on that article was pretty insightful