Heroin Saves Woman’s Life

A German woman has emigrated to Switzerland where she can get government supplied synthetic heroin that, she claims, is the reason she has been able to regain control of her life.

It’s an interesting notion. I don’t think anyone would argue much that heroin should be legalized, and you certainly won’t find such an argument coming from me. Though I support treatment over incarceration for drug addicts, I am definitely not in favor of all drugs being legal. If it can kill you in one dose, it’s probably not something you should be able to buy at 7-11 (I suppose that’s true of alcohol or aspirin as well, but with the “hard” drugs, it’s much easier to accidentally ruin your life). So, really, what I find fascinating about this article is not the heroin at all, rather the compassionate and reasonable way the Swiss offer treatment.

There are many who would rather punish drug users, to stick their heads into the sand and pretend that if we lock an issue behind stone and steel, it ceases to exist. Heroin is clearly a detriment, but rather than cycle a person through the revolving door of incarceration and rehab (which carries a high failure rate), the Swiss have opted to treat the addict with a regimented approach that keeps them functioning and producing in society. It seems to me that a person working, paying taxes and getting their drugs from secure government clinics is a far better choice than locking them away to suffer or to hit the street to deal/score their drugs at the expense of the state.

“That’s precisely why the reservations about it are so great. Is the state not turning itself into a dealer? Is society not supporting drug addiction in this way? These questions become less important when you look at individual life stories: diamorphine helps. For many, it is the last resort. What the addiction has prevented up to that point now becomes possible: an end to the pressure to get hold of drugs, an end to the health risks like HIV and hepatitis. The door back into normal everyday life is open again. The restrictions on this type of treatment are strict: twice a day, before and after work, [patients visit] a clinic to take [their] diamorphine. [Patients are] happy to keep the two appointments: [they]…escape the stress of addiction, [and] dealing.”

The twice a day schedule is enough to keep their withdrawals at bay, but not so much that they spin out of control and lose themselves again. This type of treatment (with varying results depending upon the substance and the individual) could also be used as a stepping-stone approach to mindfully wean addicts off of their substances. I wonder what sort of benefit this type of approach could have in our substantially flawed prison/rehab system.