Methadone & Other Opiate Maintenance

The city of Tel Aviv has proposed a pilot heroin maintenance program for recalcitrant older users. Now it is seeking approval from the Israeli Ministry of Health.

As Britain's Labor government prepares to announce a new long-term drug strategy in the spring, the battle is heating up. Now, the government's own Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is calling for nurses and pharmacists to be able to prescribe heroin and cocaine, and chiding the government for making a joke of consultations around the new strategy.

A pilot heroin maintenance program in three British locations has been successful in cutting crime and street drug use, according to preliminary results.

German state governments are urging the federal government to extend a successful heroin maintenance pilot program across the country.

Arnold Trebach wrote "The Heroin Solution" in 1982. That it is still relevant and relevatory is a sad commentary on how far we've come since then. We review it on the occasion of its republication.

Scottish authorities have approved the use of buprenorphine for heroin addicts who don't respond to or can't tolerate methadone.

A hush-hush Home Office briefing paper says Britain should begin prescribing heroin to hard-core users, a major London newspaper reports. It could happen as soon as next fall.

The head of Britain's association of police chiefs is calling for prescription heroin to be made available to hard-core addicts in a bid to reduce street crime.

The Scottish drug debate heated up this week as a Labor Party MSP attacked her party for heading in the wrong direction, and more than 250 senior police, health officials, academics, and others interested in drug policy pondered the future.

Congress last Friday moved to expand the number of patients certified physicians can treat with buprenorphine for opiate addiction. This is the second increase in two years.