Word: heroinism
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When methadone was first proposed for the treatment of heroin addiction, it sounded like a pointless gambit - sort of like substituting vodka for gin. That's enabling addicts, critics said, not helping them...
...over the years, maintenance treatment with methadone and other synthetic opiates like buprenorphine has proved successful - more than any other heroin-addiction therapy - in getting people off illicit drugs and lowering HIV transmission rates, crime and death among users. That success, in part, has got researchers wondering whether addiction to other drugs - namely to the stimulants cocaine and methamphetamine - could be curbed in the same way, by substituting a chemically similar alternative. (See the Year in Health, from...
...British study followed 60 stimulant addicts who were treated with dexamphetamine in a Cornwall clinic. Doctors tracked how well these patients fared compared with 120 heroin addicts being treated with methadone, and found an equivalent reduction in illicit drug use and drug injection. In both groups, about two-thirds of patients stopped injecting over 10 months...
Another problem is that stimulants appear to increase users' desire subjectively, rather than satisfying it. While a heroin high is calming and lasts for several hours, cocaine and amphetamine feel different. As actor Robin Williams, an admitted ex-user, put it, cocaine makes you feel like a new man, and the first thing the new man wants is more cocaine. It produces excitement, not relaxation. And the concern is that a maintenance drug would have the same escalating effect...
...What They're Prescribing In Switzerland: Swiss voters have approved the creation of permanent, legalized heroin centers aimed at helping hard-core addicts learn to function in society. Rather than wean users off the drug, the centers will provide them with carefully measured doses twice a day. Somewhat surprisingly, voters rejected the decriminalization of marijuana in the same referendum...