EU agency backs giving heroin to drug addicts

The EU drugs agency has published a report backing the controversial provision of heroin to chronic addicts.

Two treatment services here, Merchants Quay Ireland and the Anna Liffey Drug Project, welcomed the report by European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Emcdda) and called on the state to follow suit.

“New heroin-assisted treatment is an issue that has attracted much attention, controversy and confusion,” said Emcdda director Wolfgang Gotz. “Internationally, a number of experimental projects have been beginning to suggest that for some of those failing to respond to other approaches, the use of diamorphine [medical heroin] as a substitution medicine may be an effective way forward.

“This is not simply a case of giving heroin to heroin addicts. Rather, studies have looked at the use of heroin as part of a highly regulated treatment regime, targeting a particularly difficult-to-treat group of patients.”

The report examined supervised injectable heroin (SIH) treatment in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, England and Canada. It is also legally available in Denmark and Spain.

According to the research, SIH treatment:

* Improved physical and mental health of addicts.

* Reduced criminal activity in patients.

* Boasted a high retention rate of addicts in treatment in follow-up studies.

* Provided “significant savings” to society in terms of lower criminal justice and prison costs.

“We have an awful lot of people on methadone, some 9,500 people — that one size fits all just doesn’t work,” said Tony Geoghegan, director of Merchants Quay.

He said heroin would only be supplied to long-term users who have repeatedly failed methadone treatment.

“I can’t see any harm in the State piloting this,” said Mr Geoghegan. “It’s for very entrenched users and it’s about saving lives. It also cheaper, compared to criminal costs.”

He said it should not be seen as sending out the wrong message: “It is a sign that the state is taking this matter seriously.”

Tony Duffin of the Anna Liffey Drug Project said: “This is targeted at a group of entrenched heroin users where traditional treatment has not worked. Anything that provides more services, which improves the health of users and reduces criminal activity, is something that should be on offer.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: “The EMCDDA report indicates, for a small group of long-term heroin users, there is evidence that this treatment is effective. The EMCDDA are clear that they are not advocating the use of SIH treatment, rather their purpose is to inform.

“We have no plans to introduce SIH treatment at this stage in Ireland. One of the main areas of focus for Minister Shortall is to move people on from drug use to a drug-free lifestyle.

“At the same time, we will continue to keep the approach to providing treatment to heroin users under review in line with developments in the field.”