The topic of prescribing heroin to addicts on the NHS was proposed for debate yesterday at the National Congress of the Royal College of Nursing. The subsequent discussion highlighted the promising preliminary results of the recent UK trial in which diamorphine, the clinical name for heroin, was prescribed at various locations in England to those for whom more conventional treatments, such as methadone, had been unsuccessful. The study found that crime was greatly reduced and that health and social functioning showed significant improvement. Some individuals said that the treatment had given them back their lives.
The debate recognised that this issue is an emotive one, a fact quickly confirmed by an inspection of the comments left by members of the public when the story appeared online in the popular tabloids. Amongst the most vicious, but by no means unrepresentative, is the following contribution: “How about letting them rot in the gutter where all drug user (sic) belong and start saving lives of the good by prescribing life-saving cancer drugs.” The prevalence of such opinions only reinforces the urgent need to remove drug use from the criminal sphere and treat it as a public health issue, since the law as currently framed serves to legitimise prejudice against drug users.
The scientific evidence base for its effectiveness is growing stronger each year, and the prescribing of heroin must certainly be included in the range of treatment options available to those in need.
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The people against prescribing heroin on the NHS probably dont realise it is far cheaper than how heroin is currently supplied.
ReplyDeleteReduction in crime rates alone suggest we need to treat this as a health issue rather than a criminal one.