Canada Legalizes Heroin To Help Fight The Country’s Opioid Overdose Crisis

Canada legalized heroin as part of a controversial program to fight the opioid overdose crisis currently plaguing the country. Under new drug regulations, Canadian doctors can prescribe pharmaceutical-grade heroin to treat certain addicts.

By legalizing heroin, the government of Canada hopes the number of overdose deaths attributed to the drug will decline. Known as a heroin maintenance program, severe addicts can receive free heroin injections by entering any clinic or healthcare facility that offers the provocative drug treatment.

The injections are intended to satisfy the addict’s drug dependency without the risk of a fatal overdose. The healthcare facility provides a safe environment for an addict to get the drug, instead of finding it on the street. Additionally, should something go awry, the health care facility would have the overdose antidote naloxone accessible if needed.

Not every addict will get access to the free injections. Only those who have not responded to “traditional options” like rehabilitation and other drugs would be eligible to participate in the legal heroin program.

Under intense government scrutiny, the new legislation allows any doctor in Canada access to a form of heroin called diacetylmorphine. The program is intended to give health care providers one more tool to help addicts wean themselves off the highly addictive drug.

The qualify for the program, heroin addicts must come into a clinic at least three times per day to receive an injection. While this may inconvenience some, especially those who work or take care of families, the dropout rate is predicted to be low.

Now that Canada has legalized heroin, many other social issues associated with addicts can be reduced or eliminated. The clinics providing the heroin injections will be able to monitor and prevent many communicable diseases like HIV and Hepatitis. The government also believes legalizing the drug will encourage a decrease in the crime activities of addicts trying to get their next fix.

Legalizing heroin potentially saves taxpayer money as well. Currently, the government spends approximately $35,000 a year per addict that is either jailed or hospitalized. Under the heroin treatment program, most estimates put the cost at $21,000 per addict.

Studies done on using pharmaceutical-grade heroin to treat addiction have suggested that such maintenance programs do work. One Canadian study analyzed data compiled from various countries throughout the world revealed a significant drop in heroin use among people in treatment.

“In this trial, both diacetylmorphine [heroin] treatment and optimized methadone maintenance treatment resulted in high retention and response rates. Prescribed, supervised use of diacetylmorphine appears to be a safe and effective adjunctive treatment for this severely affected population of patients who would otherwise remain outside the health care system.”

Canada legalizing heroin is not without critics. Many alternative opioid maintenance programs use other drugs like methadone and buprenorphine to treat heroin addiction. These drugs can reduce a user’s craving for heroin without the euphoric effects.

According to both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, methadone and buprenorphine are much more effective in treating heroin addiction based on decades of research. However, there are numerous real and known addiction cases where these medicines simply did not work.

Canada legalizing heroin is just part of the overall softening of the country’s drug policies. Earlier this year, the government announced an initiative to legalize the sale of marijuana by 2017. Should cannabis legalization in Canada become reality, it would be regulated much the same as alcohol sales are now.

Canada legalized heroin to help fight the opioid overdose crisis, joining eight countries in Europe that have already done so. In effect, by legalizing heroin, Canada can help addicts not only get off the drug but also gain better control of their lives and reduce the risk of overdose.

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