Vancouver continues to provide an outlet for experimenting with drug treatments and provides an outlet for attempting understand and address the complex issue of addiction. The DTES population has participated in large scale addiction treatment studies, such as the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) supported by the federal and municipal governments, including then Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell.
NAOMI is a 2005-2008 clinical study that examined whether heroin-assisted therapy benefits people suffering from chronic opiate addictions who have not been successful with other treatments, such as methadone and abstinence programs. It is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and approved by Health Canada with participants enrolled participants in Vancouver and Montreal as these cities have the highest heroin addicted populations in the country. The treatment in the study involves treating heroin addicts with either heroin in a controlled fashion or methadone treatment followed by a transition phase where the participants are transferred to other treatment programs, including drug free and detox programs.
Results of the treatment program indicate that the heroin therapy “keeps patients in treatment, improves their health and reduces illegal activity” and that the program is particularly effective at attracting and retaining the most difficult-to-reach and the hardest-to-treat individuals that saw no success in existing treatments. It was shown to decrease heroin usage by about 70 percent, involvement in illegal activity fell by almost half, and participants overall medical status increased 27 percent.
This is another example of experimental addiction treatments that show considerable success and benefits for addicts over traditional enforcement programs. As this was only a small, concentrated study the overall impact and scale was low. However, the study did focus on helping those in greatest need who found no success in other treatments and the findings of the study present some interesting findings that may provide useful in implementing future novel solutions and treatment to addiction. Sustainability of these types of programs will be greatly increased by combining them with a facilitated access to other health and addiction services to aid in overcoming the addiction.
The findings also present a novel treatment alternative that has transformational ability- altering how addicts behave and live their lives. This is shown by the results of decreased involvement in illegal activity, decreased expenditure and usage of heroin, and an increase in overall health. Observing the success of experimental treatments such as this in the DTES can only help in building a novel solution to addiction that faces the community.
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