Of course, the one thing that all of those countries have in common is universal healthcare. "Treat addiction as a disease and prescribe heroin for it" doesn't really work so well when the overwhelming majority of addicts most likely don't have insurance or the means to pay for medical treatment out-of-pocket.
Re:Trapped by the ‘Walmart of Heroin’
by intuitionist on Friday October 12, 2018 @05:06PM
(#18204723)
This is surely true, but the US can and does cover certain medical expenses as part of Medicare/Medicaid. The political obstacles are much harder to overcome than the logistical ones.
They are also all quite small, and much more culturally and ethnically homogenous.
Germany is more than two Californias in American units, not that small.
It also eliminates the Fentanyl contamination.
Re:Trapped by the ‘Walmart of Heroin’
by stochastic_monk on Friday October 12, 2018 @11:35PM
(#18206272)
And smuggling of fentanyl from China.
The Netherlands had a very bad heroin epidemic in the 90's which has virtually disappeared thanks to this approach.
The two main takeaways in my opinion are: Treat heroin addiction as a health issue instead of a criminal issue and don't just give out heroin, always couple it with social services, treatment, etc.
Note that this approach mostly solves the visible issues. Encampments with heroin users are gone, along with all the trash, safety issues and health issues. The addicts are still addicts but the enormous cost to the community and the health of the users is enormously lessened. Also, because there's nearly no business for drug dealers anymore, there are virtually no new users. Nearly all heroin users in The Netherlands are over 40 years of age.
There are clearly huge benefits to this approach. However, according to some addicts there is also a downside. Now that there's a great way to solve all the visible issues, there is less of a focus on getting the addicts clean they say.
See:
1. https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/07/in_amsterd...
2. https://www.tdpf.org.uk/blog/heroin-assisted-treatment-switz...
3. https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/xwp74q/only-in-the-nethe...
4. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/treating-h...