Drug-use confessions by those in the public eye have a lot of power to shape perceptions, writes SHONA CRAVEN While most of us are well aware of how addictions shatter families and blight communities, the addict - particularly the heroin addict - remains an unfathomable "other". And while great efforts have been made in recent years to change public perceptions, that label retains an unmistakable moral, rather than medical, dimension. Any pity for a drug user with a wretched life is paired with a confidence that such a life is the product of choices we ourselves would never make. [continues 602 words]
STARTING THE WEEK of November 23, doctors will administer prescription heroin to a select group of patients in Vancouver. It will be the first time that heroin, or diacetylmorphine, is given to patients anywhere in North America outside of an academic study. "For this group, the addiction is so severe that no other treatment has been effective," said David Byres, vice president of acute clinical programs at Providence Health Care. "The goal is stabilization." The harm-reduction program will be run out of Providence Crosstown Clinic in the Downtown Eastside. In a telephone interview, Byres emphasized that heroin-assisted treatment is only recommended as an appropriate intervention for individuals who have repeatedly failed with traditional therapies such as methadone. [continues 835 words]
North American first comes after more than a year of battles between doctors and federal Health Minister In a North American first, heroin addicts in Vancouver will soon receive prescription heroin outside of a clinical trial. Doctors at the Providence Crosstown Clinic received shipment of the drug this week for 26 former trial participants and will begin administering the drugs next week. In all, 120 severely addicted people have received authorization from Health Canada to receive the drugs; the rest are expected to get them soon. [continues 597 words]
IN OCTOBER 2013, Health Canada made a regulation change that banned B.C. doctors from prescribing heroin to a small group of addicts. The federal department did that after consulting only one scientific report on the matter, according to documents released in response to a freedom-of-information request. Furthermore, that one expert's opinion is that prescription heroin, or diacetylmorphine, should remain an available treatment option. The document was prepared for Health Canada by Dr. Michael Lester, an expert in opioid-dependence treatment and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. It describes prescription heroin as a "pragmatic approach for people who do not significantly reduce their intravenous diacetylmorphine use despite an adequate trial of Methadone Maintenance". [continues 563 words]
Report Recommends Treating Drug Abuse as Public-Health Problem MEXICO CITY--A commission composed mostly of former world leaders will recommend Tuesday that governments move beyond legalizing marijuana and decriminalize and regulate the use of most other illegal drugs, including heroin and cocaine. The international drug-control system is broken, says a report to be released Tuesday in New York by the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Governments should be allowed wide latitude to experiment with the regulation of drugs, except for the most lethal, says the commission, whose 21 members include former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, and former presidents such as Brazil's Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Mexico's Ernesto Zedillo and Colombia's Cesar Gaviria. [continues 809 words]
Health Ministry 'Disappointed' With B.C. Supreme Court Decision on Prescribing Drug A group of Vancouver drug addicts is slated to become Canada's first recipients of legally prescribed heroin by Christmas. As many as 202 patients should receive the laboratory-manufactured heroin from Europe by the end of the year, their lawyer said Thursday. "I think there's a sense of relief," said Adrienne Smith, the health and drug policy lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society that represented five heroin addicts from Vancouver's downtown East Side. [continues 448 words]
The province's health minister says the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of a new heroin treatment regime must be evaluated before he'll get involved. Terry Lake's comments follow an open letter sent Tuesday by the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) to government and health officials claiming that the switch from methadone to Methadose in February has had "alarming side effects" on up to a quarter of patients in the Methadone Maintenance Program. "We are deeply concerned by the number of us, our friends, colleagues and loved ones who are relapsing - using heroin or other opiates to deal with this withdrawal - in many cases, after years of abstaining," the letter reads. [continues 284 words]
I did not believe it before I went to Afghanistan. But it's now clear that prohibition is no answer to this deadly scourge When Tony Blair deployed British troops in Afghanistan, ending the illicit production and supply of opium was cited as a key objective. In 2001 the prime minister linked heroin use in the UK with opium cultivation in Afghanistan: "The arms the Taliban buy are paid for by the lives of young British people buying their drugs. This is another part of the regime we should destroy." Yet after 10 years of effort with tens of thousands of troops in the country, and having spent billions trying to reduce poppy cultivation, Afghans are growing more opium than ever before. [continues 782 words]
While some cities in North America are anticipating a rise in heroin use, so far heroin use is so low in Edmonton that it's not statistically reportable, according to Alberta Health. But it's not nonexistent. Alex (not his real name), a 39-year-old in-patient at a local recovery centre, said he only tried heroin because he wasn't able to get his hands on his drug of choice. "I was looking for morphine," he said. "On this one occasion, there wasn't any available, but heroin was, and I was told it was even better." [continues 268 words]
Providence Health Care will be allowed to prescribe heroin for a clinical study until a decision is rendered after a court trial sometime next year A PROVIDENCE HEALTH CARE program to give 202 addicts prescription heroin to compare the drug's affect to replacement medication has been given the green light by the courts. Providence Health Care's controversial prescription heroin study can proceed once again after an injunction was approved by the B.C. Supreme Court Thursday. That means the study's 202 patients can apply to Health Canada for Swiss-imported prescription heroin until a decision is made in a trial in which the federal government and local health authorities are expected to clash. [continues 294 words]
Entrenched addicts who were prescribed heroin as part of a B.C.-based clinical trial will be able to continue receiving the drug while a larger constitutional challenge is before the courts. B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson released his decision on Thursday, finding risks associated with severe heroin addiction "will be reduced if [the addicts] receive injectable diacetylmorphine (heroin) treatment from Providence physicians." This is the second time since March that the courts have sided with doctors and patients over the Conservative government with respect to controversial medical treatments. [continues 518 words]
Understand that heroin treatment is a treatment VANCOUVER * A group of addicts in Vancouver who were part of a clinical trial examining the use of prescription heroin have won a temporary injunction that will allow them to continue accessing the drug at least until a court challenge is heard. The ruling, issued Thursday by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, is the second time in recent months that courts have interfered with Ottawa's attempt to rein in the medical use of otherwise illegal drugs. [continues 359 words]
Five people filed a lawsuit alleging that Ottawa had violated their charter rights VANCOUVER - A group of addicts in Vancouver who were part of a clinical trial examining the use of prescription heroin have won a temporary injunction that will allow them to continue accessing the drug at least until a court challenge is heard. The ruling, issued Thursday by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, is the second time in recent months that courts have interfered with Ottawa's attempt to rein in the medical use of otherwise illegal drugs. [continues 454 words]
Popularity of opioids may be fuelling a resurgence the drug in Metro Vancouver Callum, a 19-year-old from Vancouver's west side, doesn't fit the stereotype of a heroin addict, but his pathway to serious addiction is a textbook case of a trend that is alarming experts: the trajectory from prescription opiate abuse to heroin addiction. In many ways, Callum fits a new profile; young, privileged and with everything to live for, he fell into heroin addiction after developing a dependence on prescription opiates. [continues 3110 words]
VANCOUVER - A group of addicts in Vancouver who were part of a clinical trial examining the use of prescription heroin have won a temporary injunction that will allow them to continue accessing the drug at least until a court challenge is heard. The ruling, issued Thursday by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, is the second time in recent months that courts have interfered with Ottawa's attempt to rein in the medical use of otherwise illegal drugs. Five people filed a lawsuit last fall alleging the federal government had violated their charter rights by denying access to prescription heroin to treat their addictions. [continues 485 words]
Addicts win right to resume medical access to drug until expected Ottawa legal challenge A group of addicts in Vancouver who were part of a clinical trial examining the use of prescription heroin have won a temporary injunction that will allow them to continue accessing the drug at least until a court challenge is heard. The ruling, issued Thursday by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, is the second time in recent months that courts have interfered with Ottawa's attempt to rein in the medical use of otherwise illegal drugs. [continues 362 words]
A group of chronic drug addicts is asking a Vancouver judge for an injunction against the federal government that would allow them continued access to prescription heroin until the court hears their legal challenge. Joseph Arvay, the lawyer representing five addicts, told a judge the four men and one woman were part of a clinical trial that provided them with pharmaceutical-grade heroin until last year. When they left the study, with the recommendation of their doctors, they applied for - - and were granted - special access permits from Health Canada to receive the prescription drug, diacetylmorphine. [continues 292 words]
Event Focuses on Danish Documentary, Takes Place at Riverside Centre Anyone for Coffee and Heroin? That facetious invitation is the name of a documentary that will be one of the highlights of a forum in Maple Ridge next week about the prescription heroin controversy. The forum goes at 1 p.m. on March 4 at Riverside Centre Auditorium (20575 Thorne Ave., west of 207th Street), and discusses the heroin controversy between Health Canada and the federal Conservative government. Dale Hardy, who teaches Social Justice 12 at Riverside elementary, is organizing the event. [continues 202 words]
Street drug rampant in bigger cities but pills main problem here The street drug that likely felled actor Philip Seymour Hoffman early this month has never had much of a presence in Halifax, police say. "Historically, heroin has never been a big hit around Halifax," regional police spokesman Const. Pierre Bourdages said Tuesday. "Let's hope it stays that way." Annually, Halifax police record over 1,000 incidents of people being caught in possession of some form of illicit drug. Only two or three of those cases involve heroin, the officer said. [continues 363 words]
Group of 21 addicts granted prescriptions for the drug have not received them and are hoping an injunction will move things along Twenty-one hard-to-treat addicts won a lottery of sorts when they were given approval this fall to receive prescription heroin to help manage their dependencies - a treatment available in other countries but new to Canada. However, the federal government wasn't happy that Health Canada's Special Access Programme (SAP) granted the prescriptions and Health Minister Rona Ambrose slammed the door shut on anyone else getting similar access in the future. [continues 643 words]
