/24-7PressRelease/ - November 30, 2007 - Whilst the government is seeming to make all the right noises, actions (read: spending) speak a lot louder than words and as if to prove a point a news report was published recently which told of the success of a heroin users "shooting gallery".
That is, a clean environment where drug users are offered clean, clinical heroin (diamorphine), which is then used in safe conditions, with equipment which is used once only before being discarded safely.
All the while the users are at the shooting gallery, nursing staff are on hand to offer advice and guidance on the safest way of injecting the drug and the initial feedback the government are receiving related to this initiative is very good.
According to official figures, 10 per cent of drug addicts commit 75 per cent of the acquisitive crimes in the United Kingdom.
But the number of offences committed by the heroin addicts taking part in the shooting gallery scheme fell from an average of 40 each per month before they were admitted to "about half a dozen a month" after six months of intensive therapy, according to Professor John Strang, the head of the National Addiction Centre at the Maudsley Hospital, who is leading the study.
"Instead of buying street heroin every day, the 150 volunteers are now buying it only four or five times a month on average - while a third of them have completely stopped "scoring" the drug on the streets."
Professor Strang said: "This is genuinely exciting news. These are people with a juggernaut-sized heroin problem and I really didn't know whether we could turn it around.
We have succeeded with people who looked as if their problem was unturnable, and we have done it in six months."
The scheme is modelled on one in Switzerland, where the introduction of injecting clinics "medical-ised" heroin use and transformed it from an act of rebellion to a treatable illness.
Similar clinics now operate in France, Germany and Canada and on the face of it this initiative looks to be a rip-snorting success?
But there are those that say this is no way to get people off drugs in the long term. And the "knockers" say its too expensive.
Simply by providing it free of charge, and giving the drug user clean paraphernalia to use, doesn't get people off drugs? And with treatment costing in excess of 15,000 per patient on the scheme, its a lot more expensive on the public purse string, than oral methadone administration.
But surely thats not the point?
As an exercise in drug awareness and public relations, its worth whatever has been spent so far.
The purpose of any effective drug education campaign has to be centered on reducing harm and there can be no doubt in this instance crime figures fell, safe practices were instilled in the heroin users, a lot of used drug paraphernalia was stopped from being dropped on our streets, and the health of those involved was looked after at every turn - the first time a lot of these heroin addicts will have been seen by a doctor in years.
Heroin addicts are a notoriously difficult "group" to communicate with, often living chaotic, disorganized lives and the opportunity to pass a message as direct as this one, isn't to be passed up.
Whatever the cost!
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