Pubdate: Thu, 10 Feb 2005
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Alok Jha
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

IS HEROIN SAFE FOR SOME PEOPLE TO USE?

Perhaps, say researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University, who surveyed 126 
long-term users who seemed to have none of the health or social problems 
associated with the drug. Definitely not, responded some anti-drug 
campaigners, who complained that the research was irresponsible.

Petra Maxwell of the charity Drugscope, however, says that the report 
"wasn't questioning that heroin is, for the majority of people, a really 
dangerous, addictive drug. It was saying that you can't just apply blanket 
terms and that there are who are using the drug and managing to control it. 
Maybe by studying those people more we can learn something that we can take 
forward to developing more effective treatment."

In any case, the results are not entirely surprising for people working in 
the drugs field: research from America in the past few decades has 
documented several instances of people who can use drugs without spiralling 
off into so-called chaotic use.

Previous work found that people who managed their drug use often set 
themselves a strict framework to operate in. For example, some would never 
use it more than two days on the run or they would avoid using it on a 
Sunday night, if they were working the next day. "Many people think that if 
you use heroin or crack once then that's it you are a heroin addict, you 
are a crack addict, you're on that downward trail and there's no way of 
turning back," says Maxwell. "The [authors] were suggesting instead that we 
should look at the wider psychological and social factors that tie into 
addiction."

Most of the users surveyed in Glasgow were in employment, none had been to 
jail and they were well educated. They had plenty of social support and 
most were in relationships or had families around them.

"We don't see the report as being irresponsible at all. It's only going to 
aid understanding into what addiction is," says Maxwell.

"What is irresponsible is the way some of the media choose to report that 
research."

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MAP posted-by: Beth