Update, 10/17/08: Results were just released for the only heroin-assisted treatment trial in North America, the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI study). Like the recently completed trial in Germany, the NAOMI study indicated improved health and reduced illicit drug use among participants.

Heroin-assisted treatment, in which heroin users who have not responded to other types of treatment are given the drug itself in a controlled setting, was shown to be effective by a recent study in Germany.

Treatment is most commonly viewed as a means to help people completely stop using drugs. However, maintenance therapies such as the one used in the German study take the approach that providing safe, reliable access to the drug can improve people's health and help them stabilize their lives.
 
The study, the largest of its kind to date, found that providing heroin as a means of treatment not only improved the health of patients, but increased their ability to function in society. The results were so clearly positive that the study's clinical project coordinator called for new health policies to make heroin-assisted treatment legally available, and made "the explicit recommendation to include this type of treatment into the treatment catalogue for heroin-dependent patients."
 
The idea of providing heroin as treatment may appear counter-intuitive, but the evidence indicates it is an effective way to reduce the harms associated with drug use. In the German study, receiving heroin as treatment helped improve patients' health and reduced or stabilized their use of street heroin and cocaine.
 
In addition to success with these primary objectives, the study saw other positive outcomes -- more stable housing situations and an increase in the number of patients engaged in regular work.
 
The study was conducted in two phases over two years, and participants belonged to one of two groups: people who had not been successful in methadone treatment, and people who had not been effectively reached by the drug treatment system.
 
The study found that "heroin treatment is equally effective in methadone non-responders and in opiate addicts not reached by the drug care system."
 
The results in Germany are just the latest evidence that heroin-assisted treatment works. The U.K., Switzerland, and the Netherlands all have studied or implemented heroin-assisted treatment with positive results.
 
The only similar program in North America is NAOMI, a heroin-assisted treatment trial being conducted in Vancouver.

Also in Vancouver is a pilot safer injection facility called Insite. Insite, which has operated since 2003, is widely recognized as a success, but faces the threat of closure by the Canadian federal government. Learn more.