My research assignment will be on Vancouver helping heroin addicts by supplying them with free heroin. It might sound stupid to give a drug addict drugs but Vancouver clinics have different opinions on the topic. Not only are they supplying them with some of the best heroin around they also give them clean needles and let them shoot up under the supervision of nurses.

Similar practices have been used with prostitutes. Giving them things like free condoms to help them practice safe sex. By Vancouver giving heroin addicts free heroin, are they giving up on the addicts or are they actually helping them?

Vancouver Combats Heroin by Giving its Addicts the Best Smack in the World.

Background: Allen Schauffler, who is a correspondent for Al Jazeera, says that giving heroin to heroin addicts is called “harm reduction.” This treatment is for people that have tried heroin alternatives, like methadone, in order to try and kick the habit but failed. By giving them small doses of heroin to satisfy their need it lowers the risk of them ending up dead in an alley or selling their bodies for drug money.

How I Intend to Use It: I will use this article to back up the idea of giving heroin to addicts. It will help show Vancouver’s reasoning behind the idea of this treatment.

Why Doctors are Giving Heroin to Heroin Addicts.

Background: In Europe, countries have started to do tests on whether or not this treatment is effective or not. Britain recently started a four year experiment to see if it is worth government funding. The results of giving heroin to heroin addicts has shown a reduce in street-drug use and crime amongst the people who have been receiving the treatment.

How I Intend to Use It: The use of this article will be to show that as crazy as it sounds, this treatment actually does have some positive outcomes. It helps the addicts get a fix safely and lowers crime rates.

Heroin Clinic’s Improve Addicts Lives.

Background: Heroin clinics have lower dropout rates than methadone clinics and prevent addicts from worrying about where they’ll get their next fix or committing crimes in order to get money. There are many positive things that have come from heroin clinics but some patients are getting frustrated with the process.

How I Intend to Use It: I can use this to show the positive side of giving heroin to addicts and to show some of the similarities that other countries have with Vancouver.

The Only Place They’ll Inject You With Heroin for Free.

Background: The reason Vancouver is giving heroin addicts free heroin is in hopes or giving them a better life. Talking to an addict about the treatment showed that life has improved and that the treatment is working. Not only is this treatment helping to improve lives but it also saving money for the government. An estimate of drug use in 2002 showed that Canada lost $8.2 billion because of health care, law enforcement costs, and lack of productivity for to illness or death.

How I Intend to Use It: This article shows improvements in more than just the lives of the addicts but also improvements in the government. It shows how much of an impact heroin has on the lives of more than just the addict and what these treatments can do to help.

Prescription Heroin Helps Addicts off Street Drugs.

Background: This treatment is the last hope for people that have tried and failed all other treatments. Dr. John Strang says “People are not only getting physically better, but they’re getting back into society.” The question that is being proposed isn’t if this treatment works, studies have shown that it works. Stang says, “Now that we know it works, we have to debate whether or no we should use it.”

How I Intend to Use It: This treatment isn’t going to be for every addict that needs heroin but only for the select few that have shown no improvement with other treatments. This article shows that it is a last alternative when all else fails and shouldn’t be used unless necessary. I will use this to help put some peoples minds at ease and show that Vancouver giving addicts heroin isn’t as bad as it sounds.

Legalizing Medical Marijuana May Actually Reduce Crime, Study Says

Background: Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas say that legalizing medical marijuana causes no increase in crime but actually reduces violent crime including homicide. The study conducted by the researches didn’t look at the relationship between marijuana use and violent crime but the legalization’s effect on crime. Robert Morris, the lead author of the study, says that the crime associated with marijuana is a result of its illegality rather than the substance itself.

How I Intend to Use It: Other drugs being offered for medical use have the same result in lowering crime rates. The reason the crimes are committed is because these drugs are illegal and if the addicts can get their fix legally it reduces the crimes they have to commit in order to get it.

Drugs and Crime

Background: In the US most inmates are in prison because of drugs. Half of all inmates are addicted to drugs and once released will most likely return because of a drug related crime.

How I Intend to Use IT: This article will be used to show how closely related drugs and crime are.

Heroin

Background: Heroin is about 2-3 times more potent than morphine and is most often injected or snorted. There are many other ways to use heroin but they don’t give the user a “rush” as quickly as injecting or snorting. Using heroin gives the user a sense of euphoria along with other side effects. But besides the drug itself, other factors in using heroin provide risks to the user. The sharing of needles spreads HIV, toxic reactions to impurities in the heroin and things like collapsed veins etc.

How I Intend to Use It: This backs up the idea of providing heroin in a safe way. The user gets their fix but does it with clean needles, pure heroin, and under the supervision of a nurse to make sure the user is safe.

Methadone Replacement for Heroin

Background: Methadone is very similar to heroin but the effects stay in your body a lot longer. You are unlikely to get withdrawal symptoms from methadone like you get from heroin. Methadone can cause harm or death in an overdose if not taken correctly.

How I Intend to Use It: To show that the alternatives for heroin aren’t that different from heroin, so giving heroin as a form of treatment to heroin addicts isn’t as crazy as it sounds.