Canada has a radical plan for social costs of drug use

[Rose Siding]

snip>
The problem had proved so intractable that the Canadian government is on the cusp of a radical plan, the first of its type in North America, to solve a handful of opiate-addiction problems by perpetuating one of them -- the addiction. Put simply, local health officials here are about to join the ranks of heroin dealers.

Called the North American Opiate Medications Initiative and funded by the federal Canadian Institute of Health Research, the $8 million program will allow health officials in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto to distribute for free daily doses of heroin to a small, screened group of longtime addicts.

Endorsed by the Vancouver police chief and patterned after similar studies and programs in The Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia, the program's aim is to stabilize addicts as a way to stem drug-related crimes and the spread of blood-borne infectious diseases. Eventually, proponents of the study hope, these people can be treated for the addiction.
...
U.S. health and drug officials' opinions of the Canadian program range from guarded interest to open hostility. In the White House's Office of Drug Policy, David Murray, a top aide to drug czar John Walters, said the program is an example of what medicine and governments must never do.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/211015_heroin07.html

[Minstrel Boy]

1. "an example of what medicine and governments must never do"

An American official can say that, after decades of fucking with the brain chemistry of innocent and unwitting subjects by CIA mind control research?

[Rose Siding]

5. An aide to a top US drug czar, he asks "What's wrong with methadone?"

I know little about methadone beyond the fact that it's also addictive and that it's been available in drug programs for a long time, which should pretty much answer his question imo.

[w4rma]

10. say what?

mind control research? You should realize that using that term doesn't help you argue your position on this, in the least.

That said. I'm all for this Canadian policy if it works well as I think it might.

[Minstrel Boy]

15. say what, yourself?

You've never heard of MK-ULTRA? MK-SEARCH? ARTICHOKE? Mind control research has been, at least in a small part, declassified. It's public knowledge. Or at least, it should be.

This isn't sci fi/fantasy stuff. Though it is the stuff of nightmares.

[ooglymoogly]

12. what they must never do is cut into the huge infrastructure

of power that the drug war gives to law enforcement and the judiciary and the gop...fk the people

[Bridget Burke]

2. We've seen how well drug Prohibition works.

Recognizing opiate addiction as a medical problem makes more sense. It would also take the glamor* & profit out of junk.

------

* Having known a junkie or 2 in my day, I realize there's no glamor. But it can seem that way to the impressionable.

(And since I grow herbs quite well, I'd love the chance to grow my own Herb!)

[freepotter]

3. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a country

where the government was compassionate and had a hint of intelligence? Ours would rather keep its failed "War on Drugs" policy than to ever admit that it was a mistake. Either that or, because of limited intelligence and imagination, they can't begin to conceive of a way to deal with the problems of addiction other than to punish the addicted. :crazy: I keep practicing "O, Canada" hoping for the day....

[Dez]

4. Yea, me too, Freepotter

Canada is a compassionate country, and I think this new endevour will prove to be very successful. And I think it will lower the crime rate in these cities. Some of these junkies have tried everything to get off heroin, and nothing works. It makes no sense to criminalize them. Go Canada! I love ya!

[shirlden]

6. We can't stop the drug trade

Where would the CIA get financing ??

:silly:

[B3Nut]

14. That's something that always mystifies me...

How on the one hand we ruthlessly pursue all manner of drug dealers and users, punishing people mercilessly who need help, while on the other hand bringing in the drugs to sell to finance covert ops. The hypocrisy and sheer insanity of this is staggering to behold. If Bush is so hot-to-trot to screen Americans for psychiatric disorders, he would do well to start with the government, since they seem to be in the worst need of professional help.

Todd in Beerbratistan

[LynnTheDem]

7. Excellent. Way to go yet again, Canada!

Beauty AND brains! :)

[KurtNYC]

13. At the opening of Toronto's Wintercity celebration

they played Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle" and although it is just a goofy pop tune, I was struck by the lyrics which seemed to present a simple embodiment of liberal policies:

Feed the babies
who don't have enough to eat.
Shoe the children
with no shoes on their feet.
House the people living in the streets....

[bemildred]

8. What the drug warriors are really afraid of is that this program will work

well, and it will, and they will be out of work.

[SOS]

9. In Switzerland

the program worked really well. The police chief of Zurich was dead set against the program when it was announced. But then crime dropped 80% almost overnight. The police chief is now a big supporter of the program.
It works. That's why it will never be adopted in the US.

[bemildred]

11. A quotation:

For the man in the paddock, whose duty it is to sweep up manure, the supreme terror is the possibility of a world without horses.
-- Henry Miller in Tropic of Cancer"

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

16. Worth a try.

It's far from an ideal solution, but for most of these people, anything would be an improvement. I just hope the people in charge of the distribution understand the purpose behind it. Simply handing out fixes isn't enough; it's only one part of the main goal, which is making people's lives better.

Actually, this program would probably help reduce drug use in the long run. As they are, a lot of these addicts are beyond any hope of rehabilitation (by which I mean therapy, not jail). But through the NAOMI program, they would be protected from some of the worst effects of their addiction. They'd be better able to cope with it, and to eventually break it permanently.

On a side note, I wonder how CIHR intends to distribute these drugs? Lots of addicts can't or won't go to the clinics for their handouts, and making deliveries is just plain dangerous. The local dealers probably won't be very hospitable.