Supervised Heroin Injections May Help Drug Addicts Quit

A new study published in the Lancet medical journal suggests that treating heroin addicts with actual heroin can make it easier for them to break their habit. This recommendation comes following a study of up to 127 addicts from the UK, who had previously tried to quit but failed.

In the study, the drug addicts were subjected to controlled injections of “medical” grade heroin and over a 6-month period made remarkable progress when it came to their dependency on the drug. Researchers led by Professor John Strang, from the National Addiction Centre at King’s College London, says that the supervised injections work because they allow for addicts to begin trying to get their lives back on track, by thinking about employment, and how to take responsibility over their own lives.

“This is a treatment for a severe group of heroin addicts that ordinary treatments have failed with and the question we’re answering is ‘are these patients
untreatable?’,” he says. “The very good news is that you can get these people on a constructive trajectory.”

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