First free heroin clinic opens in Denmark

[웃 910]

First free heroin clinic opens in Denmark

February 22, 2010 - AFP

COPENHAGEN — After years of contention, Denmark on Monday opened its first clinic equipped to distribute free heroin under medical supervision to people heavily addicted to the drug.

The Scandinavian country joins a number of countries like Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany to allow prescriptions for medicinal heroin, or diamorphine, to be written out to a small group of addicts so hooked on the substance that more traditional substitutes like methadone have no effect.

The clinic is set to serve only 120 of some 300 hard-core heroin addicts, or only about one percent of all drug addicts in the country.

"Our objective is not to cure heroin addicts, but to help those who are not satisfied by methadone by providing them with clean heroin, allowing them to avoid disease and the temptation of criminal acts to obtain the drug," a doctor and head of the clinic Inger Nielsen told AFP.

Only addicts who have been referred from a methadone centre for treatment and who voluntarily request to enter the clinic will be permitted to participate in the programme, Nielsen said.

They will be treated with methadone for the first 14 days "so we can determine how much heroin to prescribe," she added.

The Danish parliament passed a law legalising the distribution of medicinal heroin in 2008, but the opening of the clinic was delayed until the city of Copenhagen agreed to house the programme.

The User Association, a group representing drug addicts, remains critical, blasting that patients are required to go to the clinic twice a day, seven days a week, to receive their doses.

"This means living like a zombie, without being able to hold down a job or study or have hobbies," head of the association Joergen Kjaer told reporters.

[Peikko 1,575]

It's hard to know what to do with hard core addicts - trying to stop them acting criminally in order to feed their addiction is probably as useful a course of action as any.

[PhiLandShiR 18]

It's hard to know what to do with hard core addicts - trying to stop them acting criminally in order to feed their addiction is probably as useful a course of action as any.

Just give then a nice clean dose and send them on there way...

[scandal 951]

Anybody remember Hamsterdam on 'The Wire'?

Who needs Denmark, legal heroin on the streets of B'more, FTW.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

If they gave out free beer and crack, Marc would move there.

[scandal 951]

If they gave out free beer and crack, Marc would move there.

Marc's got Eric up his crack.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Marc's got Eric up his crack.

Poor Eric. He even quit Expats.

[scandal 951]

Poor Eric. He even quit Expats.

Seriously??

Dude, that's really messed up. I hope he's ok. Here's a flower for him

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Seriously??

Dude, that's really messed up. I hope he's ok. Here's a flower for him

He hasn't been around much for a while now. I hope he's ok too. I'll have to remember to ask Bill.

[scandal 951]

He hasn't been around much for a while now. I hope he's ok too. I'll have to remember to ask Bill.

Why, is Bill IEA too?

[Nessa 23]

how did a heroin thread become about Eric?

[Nagishkaw 510]

It started with the word, Crack.

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

I guess this is the next step for "safe injection" clinics like the one we have in Vancouver. I really can't wrap my mind around the mentality of feeding another's addiction. Do we give free booze to alcoholics? Free casino chips to gamblers? It's pretty backwards...

[Peikko 1,575]

You do understand that heroin is an illegal drug, right?

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

You do understand that heroin is an illegal drug, right?

Of course...and that's what makes it all the more unusual. Either a drug's illegal and use of it should be 100% prohibited, or it should be legalized. I don't like the idea of, "Let's give this illegal drug to the addicts." It's a slippery slope both legally and morally.

Feeding ANY addiction is backwards thinking, in my opinion. Feeding an addiction to an illegal substance is even crazier.