British Heroin Maintenance
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 3:10 PM

Until the early 1970s, doctors in Britain could prescribe heroin to addicts. With increased addiction being tied to leakages from the prescription system, distribution of heroin for addiction maintenance was tightened. Today there are about 450 British addicts who receive heroin from some 100 specially-licensed physicians. But now, following the perceived successes of previous heroin maintenance experiments in Switzerland and the Netherlands, the British intend to initiate pilot programs that will expand prescription access by addicts to heroin.

Thanks to John Band at Shot By Both Sides for the pointer.

An alternative treatment for opioid addicts is the oral administration of buprenorphine. We noted a while ago some of the barriers to the spread of this treatment in the US; a detailed explanation of how buprenorphine treatment works, based partly on personal experience, is provided by Nephalim's Drug War Revealed.

Labels: Britain, buprenorphine, heroin, treatment