Free junk for junkies - a fix or folly?

Edmonton Journal - Story - canada.com network
Very informative article which appeared in several papers across Canada on January 25/04. The article describes serveral heroin maintenance programs worldwide, and how Canada is embarking on a pilot project of heroin maintenance in three cities. As well, a overview of the laws against opiates and the impact since late 19th century.

With maintenance being re-discovered in country after country, hardliners in the UN and the White House are doing their best to discredit the idea.

John Walters, the U.S. drug czar, attacked the British system in the Wall Street Journal last year.

"When British physicians were allowed to prescribe heroin to certain addicts, the number skyrocketed," Walters wrote. "From 68 British addicts in the program in 1960, the problem exploded to an estimated 20,000 heroin users in London alone by 1982."

This is deeply deceptive, says Fazey. Not only had the British system been in place for decades before 1960 without any increase in addiction, it was effectively dead "by about 1972."