From: "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com>
Newsgroups: uk.politics.drugs,talk.politics.drugs,sci.med
Subject: Re: Lottery fund awards £500,000 to drug trial that will give addicts 
	free heroin
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 12:32:09 -0700
Message-ID: <bg6i3p$88c$1@slb1.atl.mindspring.net>

"Jasbird" <jasbird#deletethis#@myrealbox.com> wrote in
message news:st1civkrnddsojobgspeouu37vnshcc774@4ax.com...
> Why does injectable Heroin cost 5 times more than oral methadone
> treatment?


Injectable anything costs more than the oral form.
Injectable heroin would cost far more than oral heroin. To
be safe, IV drugs have to be more pure and have to be kept
sterile. All that costs money.

Finally, heroin is also inherently a more expensive drug
than methadone because a heroin dose doesn't last as long,
so it simply takes a lot more of it. Addicts prefer heroin
because it crosses the blood brain barrier better and
faster, and provides more of a "rush". But only when used
IV.

SBH

From: "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com>
Newsgroups: uk.politics.drugs,talk.politics.drugs,sci.med
Subject: Re: Lottery fund awards £500,000 to drug trial that will give addicts 
	free heroin
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 12:54:40 -0700
Message-ID: <bg6jdv$f6m$1@slb6.atl.mindspring.net>

> The trial will compare the benefits of "super-charged" oral methadone
> with injectable methadone and injectable heroin. The addicts on
> prescribed heroin will have to attend the clinics in London three to
> four times a day to receive their hits.
> 
> Treating addicts with injectable heroin is expensive; oral methadone
> costs about £3,000 a year per patient, while injectable heroin costs
> £15,000.
> 
> Professor Strang said: "We will be recruiting people who are at the
> extreme end of the scale of addiction, who have failed on the first line
> of treatments. We would hope to see that by giving them prescribed
> heroin under supervised conditions, we see a reduction in their illicit
> drug use and criminality, and gains in their health.
> 
> "We want to medicalise the way in which they take the drug, so there
> won't be joss sticks and Led Zeppelin records.


COMMENT:

And why the hell not? The whole point of this exercise is
for the government to pay for the habits of people who don't
get enough pleasure for powerful oral narcotics, but must,
for some reason, mainline IV heroin. So, as long as we're to
pay for them to do this, why not have the government pay for
incense and peppermints and maybe a massage and a hooker or
two, as well? And why not just heroin? Won't there be
addicts who prefer speedballs, and need IV cocaine? I'm
confused.

Why oh why does the government always have to *&^% things
up? Are we going to go straight from a society where your
drug habit gets you into prison at taxpayer expense, to one
in which your drug habit gets you nirvana at taxpayer
expense?

With never an intervening libertarian time in which you're
expected to be a responsible adult (gasp) and be personally
responsible for the consequences (both good and bad) of your
*own* addictions, pleasures, hobbies and pursuits?

> He added: "I think it is impressive that the Community Fund is
> supporting research like this. These people [heroin addicts] are a
> disadvantaged group, and the Community Fund tends to focus on
> disadvantaged people. The grant may strike some people as controversial
> but whatever the rights and wrongs of their behaviour, these people need
> help.

I don't think it's "impressive." It makes me want to lose my
lunch.

Hey, I need help, too. Somebody needs to pay for my extra
scuba vacation to to Cozumel! I promise if the government
pays for it, I won't rob any little old ladies to get the
money. And I'm disadvantaged, really I am. In fact, anybody
who hasn't seen those coral reefs up close and 60 ft down,
is disadvantaged. It's very addictive. Seeing _Finding Nemo_
is like methadone-- it just is no substitute for the real
thing, and many people like me just cannot quit on such thin
stuff.

Hey, if the Brit government promises to pay for my scuba
trips, I'll even let you all "medicalize it." Get me a nurse
or two in a starched white cap (slender, please, age 25-35),
and you can take chart notes and make sure I'm safe. For
£15,000 a year, which is what you'll be spending to mainline
these heroin addicts, I figure I can have a pretty damn good
Carribean vacation, and as always I'm sure that my feeling
of disempowerment and disadvantagment will be amazingly
dissolved by the island breezes, the coconut palms, and a
little rum punch.

Add nurses and it's still no problem, mon.

SBH