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April, 2010.
Danish heroin on prescription has started – the User Union's opinion
By Joergen Kjaer, president
From the Danish Drug Users Union / BrugerForeningen (BF) we are naturally relieved happy and proud, that our allies and our 15 years of common fight finally is fruitful. But we are also reluctant to cheer too much, because there are still many things in the Danish Health Boards recommendations (read: demands), that could be regulated much in a more humane way.
First of all participants must have been on methadone at least for a year - which exclude all those who have problems with methadone and hate the side effects. Other admission criteria are that one must have or be in risk of getting injection damage, but they still only allow injections. That is even despite that many of the users who would qualify for the project, have only few or no more veins to shoot up into, so we therefore proposed, that it should be possible to smoke the heroin on foil just like it is in Holland – and just as well that it should be considered important, as yet a harm reducing element, to implement snorting the heroin, so the users could have more than one option of administration, known to be far less harmful than injections. But non of our wishes was heard or met by the un-Health(y) Board. We also find it difficult to see how the participants should be able to build up a better life, while they must show up at the clinic twice a day seven days a week – 728 times a year!!. However, they will still only be given methadone for night dosing, and for eventually weekend off and or holiday dosing. That is even despite the Health Board fully acknowledge that methadone does have certain blocking effect on the heroin and that methadone and heroin work less good than heroin alone.
Generally we find it absurd that the users still can find much better conditions and more freedom at their local pusher, than at a 9.5 million € state project.
According to newspaper articles The Danish Health Board claim that they had large difficulties finding the pharmaceutical heroin. It actually took them just about a year - while they could just have asked us ;-) - We could easily have pointed them towards several pharmaceutical companies, who produce the legal heroin in the 7 other countries, where legal heroin is provided. Anyway they finally got a contract with a Swizz pharmaceutical company – but as far as we heard from newspapers, they must pay as much as 80.00 US $ a gram – which is extremely expensive for a morphine product, and actually as much as 50% of the street price of the best Thai no 4 heroin.
To make things safe as possible the Danish Health Board asked the police, how they would recommend the measure of security around the heroin - so now the security around the Danish heroin is extremely tight and before anyone comes near to the heroin they must have a security clearance approved by the security police, and the heroin must be transported and kept in special time controlled steel safety lockers. Other morphine products can be sent by normal postal service and doesn’t need any special security approval or time based steel lockers – absolutely hysterical – almost like if it was the “Ebola virus” ;-) or the Royal jewels and not just one more morphine product of which there are several kilos on every local pharmacy, hospitals and elderly care homes.
The users must start ingesting their methadone under supervision for a two weeks period before anyone start to get any heroin – they claim that is to avoid overdoses and so they are sure that the users are using the whole dose they are prescribed. Such a safety precaution was never necessary when building up the methadone dose – they just started with a low dose and build it up slowly. Anyway it took two years to start - after the historical majority vote of 178 of the 179 members at the Danish parliament decided that the heroin treatment should start.
Currently 5 cities have announced that they want to open a local heroin treatment clinic,
On the positive side the entire staff of the Copenhagen clinic “Valmuen” (The poppy) visited BF before the clinic even started, and they all seem very user friendly and eager to perform the task of providing legal heroin to the users. They all applied for their new jobs and have studied other heroin programs abroad. We expect that we need 3 - 5 more years before we have human conditions as we can live with in the long run – which is – as with all other medicine - heroin on the local pharmacy at a weekly basis. So now the bet is on – will we have human conditions or maybe even a general legalization first?
For our dear friends and colleagues who still fight for legal heroin treatment elsewhere – now your country have 8 countries ahead of your. One of the most important arguments as I used in the public debate right until we got it was this: “It is not particular banana republics – but highly sophisticated countries” - “So why are our politicians dragging on their feet”?
It is on the way marginalized people are treated that show how sophisticated, and how much compassion and humanity a country have. Now last but not least I wish you all the good luck and positive energy that you might need to be the next country, that open up for heroin on prescription.
With respect and solidarity
Joergen Kjaer - president
Danish Drug Users Union(BrugerForeningen)
www.brugerforeningen.dk
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