Pubdate: Wed, 2 Apr 2008
Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Vancouver Courier
Contact:  http://www.vancourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474
Author: Allen Garr
Cited: North American Opiate Medication Initiative http://www.naomistudy.ca
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?131 (Heroin Maintenance)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

END OF NAOMI WASTES RESEARCH

The federal government is about to pour millions of dollars in drug 
research down the drain. This is not about the anticipated closure of 
the supervised injection site this summer. This is about the NAOMI 
project, the North American Opiate Medication Initiative, which is 
about to end.

NAOMI was intended to be a project carried out in Montreal, Vancouver 
and a couple of U.S. cities. But the scientists in the States were no 
match for the drug warriors occupying the White House and that part 
never got off the ground. Up here in Canada, with the Liberals in 
power in Ottawa, the NAOMI research request scored high with the 
Canadian Institute of Health Research. The government funded agency 
forked over an unprecedented $8.1 million.

The experiment randomly assigned long-term drug addict participants 
to treatments of oral methadone or injected heroin. A small 
percentage received a pharmaceutical opiate called Dilaudid. Through 
the 15 month course of their daily treatment with these drugs, 
addicts received counselling and other support services including 
help finding housing. Following the approval of the funds, Ottawa 
agreed to allow for the importation of pharmaceutical grade heroin 
and the use of this heroin for injection during the experiment.

Enrolment for the program began in February of 2005. In total there 
would be 251 people--192 in Vancouver and the rest in Montreal. 
Addicts and advocates complained that the criteria for participants 
were strict to the point of almost being impossible to meet. Those in 
Vancouver had to have tried and failed twice to beat their heroin 
addiction through methadone. They had to be over 25, an addict for 
more than five years, not be on probation or up on criminal charges 
and live in the Downtown Eastside.

The ultimate goal for those supporting NAOMI was to come up with 
research that would support making heroin available as part of the 
health care program. It was a step up from the supervised injection 
site where addicts could fix in a sanitary and secure facility but 
still had to rely on street drugs of questionable quality and 
committing crimes to raise the money to buy those drugs. "This one is 
going to stop the crime," said Dean Wilson, one of Vancouver's best 
known junkies and a star in the documentary Fix.

And indeed the whole world was watching. Australian addiction 
specialist Dr. Alex Wodak said at the time NAOMI "is going to go down 
in history as a very important piece of scientific research."

But NAOMI was only unique is some details. Similar experiments were 
going in several European countries. One notable difference in the 
cohort of participants here and in Europe is housing. In Germany 
between 80 and 90 per cent of participants had stable housing. 
Here--reflecting Ottawa's social housing policy--that figure is about 
50 per cent, which reduces chances of success.

But from the beginning the question was always asked: what do you do 
after 15 months of treatment with people who have been on heroin and 
have gotten their lives somewhat in order?

In Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the scientific 
experiments were declared a success and have now been rolled into 
public health programs funded by those governments. The Swiss, 
incidentally, discovered that addicts fared far better on 
pharmaceutical heroin than they did on methadone.

Here, the last few people are moving through the NAOMI experiment. 
Those who are through are being offered methadone. But many are back 
to their old street habits of crime to buy illegal drugs. The Harper 
government is expected to turn its back on the NAOMI research results 
rather than follow Europe's lead. If we were talking about cancer 
patients or drugs to control rheumatoid arthritis, instead of the 
illness of addiction, people would be marching in the streets. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake