Landmark heroin study set to begin in Vancouver

I would like to hear what you guys think about this study. They are going to be giving addicts whom MMT failed, a "pill form" of synthetic heroin (hydromorphone)instead of allowing them to inject it (as they have had some studies done in the past).

So in some ways, I see this as no differnent than MMT and in some way WORSE than MMT. So if MMT failed them, what makes them think this would work any better?

At least methadone stays in the body/system longer than heroin so are they are going to have to medicate them multiple times a day or is this going to be a "time release" type hydromorphone?? If it will have to be given multiple time a day will that mean mulitple clinic visits in one day?

Also, if MMT treatment failed them, I don't understand how they think this will be any better, again, citing the concerns I stated above as a BIG deterrant. PPL have enough trouble getting to a clinic ONCE a day.

I know this is just a "study" but it is studies that this that can impact our rules and regs on MMT.

Here is the article below, let me know what you guys think.........

THis article comes from the "The Globe and Mail" out of British Columbia and the link is http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/landmark-heroin-study-set-to-begin-in-vancouver/article1408154/

Justine Hunter

Victoria — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Dec. 21, 2009 7:24PM EST Last updated on Monday, Dec. 21, 2009 7:50PM EST


Just weeks before the spotlight hits Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, a landmark medical study is set to begin, drawing attention to the one class of Vancouverites that the city doesn't want to showcase: Heroin addicts.

The four-year trial will provide 322 chronic addicts at a private Vancouver clinic with heroin or a legal substitute opiate, Hydromorphone.

“This could revolutionize heroin treatment internationally,” said Trish Walsh, executive director of the InnerChange Foundation. “It's exciting to start this before the Olympics, we think it's a great opportunity treat the root cause of homelessness in the Downtown Eastside.”

It took more than a year for study organizers to get regulatory approvals to import heroin and to gather the finances, which are coming in part from the private sector.
A second clinic was planned for Montreal but without the authorization, the researchers decided to proceed with just one.

The research arm of Health Canada has approved the Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness (SALOME) as a way to examine alternate therapies for addicts who have not responded to conventional methadone treatment.

The researchers will attempt to determine if heroin addicts will accept an alternate narcotic that is legally available in Canada, and will examine if providing those drugs in a pill form, rather than by injection, is effective. If successful, Ms. Walsh said, it would be a groundbreaking new treatment in a field where few options are available, especially in Canada.

While the long-term goal is to help the addicts get off hard drugs, in the short term, the plan is to get them away from the more dangerous and troubling aspects of heroin addiction, such as committing crimes, sharing needles and shooting up in back alleys.

The clinical trial builds on an earlier Canadian heroin trial, the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI). The researchers found that participants who were given heroin in a clinic were healthier and committed fewer crimes to pay for their habits.

The results of NAOMI were published in the New England Journal of Medicine last August and garnered international media attention. A small portion of the participants in that study were given Hydromorphone to serve as a control group, and researchers were surprised to discover how effective it seemed to be. This study will test the drug more broadly to see if it can be proven to work as a substitute.

Ms. Walsh said the success of the NAOMI study will ensure this trial will be followed closely. “NAOMI showed there are solutions to helping to end the crisis in the Downtown Eastside,” she said.

But for a wider audience, there is considerable interest in a treatment that does not involve injection drugs. Being able to take a narcotic in pill form reduces the need for medical staff at the clinic, and also reduces the stigma when persuading policy makers to approve treatment funding.

Although there has been little encouragement from the federal government for Insite, Vancouver's safe injection site, Ms. Walsh said the goal is to have heroin or Hydromorphone available as a treatment option.

“There are approximately 5,000 chronic addicts in the Downtown Eastside,” she noted. “So there is so much more we have to do. This is a very exciting trial, but the goal is to have this as a model for treatment in Vancouver and across Canada.”


In January, the research team will finalize the location of the Vancouver clinic and will begin consultations with stakeholders in the Downtown Eastside. They'll begin taking applications for clients in February. Participants must be adults and, as in the NAOMI trial, must be able to demonstrate that methadone treatment has failed them.

If this treatment is found effective and safe, why would one have to fail at MMT to receive this form of treatment. I think this is like how some people believe that methadone should be used as a LAST RESORT, and only if all else has failed. This is an ignorant view on treating addiction. Why should someone have to hit such a bottom to receive the help they need. Just as AA has, as the Big Book says, "RAISED THE BOTTOM", so that people will embrace AA sometimes long before they lose their job, family, car, life savings... I think the same goes for opiate replacement therapy. If the problem can be treated while one is abusing vicoden, and before they are on the street shooting heroin, that is great and should be done. I would hate to have to see someone get on MMT and be allowed to overdose and possibly get in more trouble with the law, before they would "QUALIFY" for hydromorphone treatment. Just my two cents worth.