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Heroin study may show promising results

Harm reduction advocates in Vancouver are claiming that a Canadian-funded study that shows prescription heroin in a positive light is being suppressed by the government:

Officials from the Pivot Legal Society announced yesterday they are filing a complaint over the delayed results of the controversial study that also showed improved health among the addicts given prescription heroin, methadone and dilaudid, a morphine derivative.

The society's campaign director, David Eby, said his group has video footage of a researcher at a conference in Switzerland last month presenting some of the trial's findings, which show the beneficial effects of supervised heroin injections.

"We [wonder] why these results were released in Switzerland and not domestically," he said.

Maybe it's not as sinister as it sounds:

But a spokeswoman for the project, known as the North American Opiate Medication Initiative, said in a brief statement released late yesterday that the final results are not ready and will not be released until later this month....

NAOMI spokeswoman Julie Schneiderman said Dr. Schechter spoke in Switzerland to a group of addiction experts but did not release the findings publicly. "They weren't ready because we are working on a final report," Ms. Schneiderman said.

"Dr. Schechter made a presentation in Switzerland to a closed-door conference of experts. I have no idea if something was secretly videotaped. He has not presented any final results."

Ms. Schneiderman said she could not comment on allegations of suppression from the Prime Minister's Office. "You'll have to speak to the PMO. The statement clearly says we are working on the results. It's more than a 100-page report."

Aaaanyway, let's get down to what's interesting about the results:

In the study that finished at the end of June, 45 per cent of the participants received heroin, 45 per cent methadone and 10 per cent hydromorphone, also known as Dilaudid....

The advocacy groups said one finding was that of the participants in Montreal and Vancouver who took part in the project - and were on heroin, hydromorphone or methadone - all showed an increased ability to get housing and showed improved health.

They said another finding was that those on heroin or hydromorphone were twice as likely to stay in treatment compared with those on methadone.

Reduction in crime was greater in the group receiving heroin and participants reduced the amount of heroin they used per day and the number of times they used per day, they said.

Posted By Scotto at 2008-10-13 00:16:38 permalink | comments
Tags: heroin methadone hydromorphone dilaudid harm reduction
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