Pubdate: Tue, 24 May 2005
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2005 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: David Carrigg, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

HEROIN? THEY CAN'T GIVE IT AWAY

VANCOUVER - A controversial Vancouver drug-treatment program is struggling 
to recruit addicts despite offering a year's worth of free heroin.

"We had a slower start to the study than we had expected," said Jim 
Boothroyd of the North American Opiate Medication Initiative.

"We thought that our telephone lines would be rung off [the hook]."

The federal government-funded NAOMI project is to recruit 158 hard-core 
heroin users in the gritty Downtown Eastside by November. But in three 
months, it has attracted only 21 people.

Mr. Boothroyd said the problem is due to a combination of stringent entry 
requirements and misinformation about the program circulating in the area.

"People thought we were fully enrolled in the first week. One doctor 
thought we were giving away free cocaine and other people thought we were 
taking methadone users, which we aren't," he said.

The participants must be older than 25, have been hard-core users for five 
years, have used every day for the past year, not be on probation and live 
within a kilometre of the project's Downtown Eastside location.

They must also consent to making all their medical history available to 
researchers and cannot be facing criminal charges.

Participants will receive either heroin or methadone several times a day, 
seven days a week, for a year.

The idea is to see whether giving addicts free heroin helps them give up 
their addiction.

The project is also working with the groups in the troubled community that 
house hard-core addicts. There are an estimated 4,000 hard-core addicts in 
the Downtown Eastside.

Mr. Boothroyd said he is confident recruiters will fill all the spaces by 
November.

The trial, which includes sites in Montreal and Toronto, will cost $8-million.
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MAP posted-by: Beth