links for 2009-10-21

  • A British study has found that giving heroin to addicts reduces crime and turns around the lives of addicts. On the one hand, this strikes me as awfully distasteful. On the other hand, these results are just brilliant, and sometimes government (and business) needs to do counter-intuitive things for the right results.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

4 replies on “links for 2009-10-21”

  1. I don’t think that’s correct. My understanding is that methadone is used to get addicts through withdrawl while they’re kicking heroin. Methadone is a substantially different chemical than heroin and thus does not facilitate their heroin dependency, but it does help suppress some withdrawl symptoms.

    Giving them heroin, on the other hand, does keep them addicted. It seems that this approach is a last-ditch effort after rehab has failed.

  2. My understanding is that by giving users a safe environment, you’re reducing all sorts of medical and social risks (infection, adulterants, bad crowd.) Then you can start weaning them off the drug in a controlled manner.

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