News Norway mulls using heroin to prevent deadly overdoses

[brassmonkey]

hotlinked

BERGEN, Norway (AP) ? The pale, zombie-like addicts staggering through concrete underpasses make an unlikely scene in wealthy Norway's picturesque second city. As a gateway to the fjords which zigzag the oil-rich nation's long coastline, Bergen is the last stop on a global drug route that gives it one of the worst heroin problems in Europe.

Now with a change in local government here and in the capital, Oslo, there is an appetite to use radical policies to curb the alarming number of Norwegians who die from heroin overdoses each year. Alongside traditional replacement therapies, such as methadone, the new left-wing local leaders want to use a medical form of injectable heroin to treat the most at-risk users.

The official goal is to wean them off the drug entirely, but even the most ardent supporters admit the most achievable target is to bring them within a safer environment, while helping to tackle the crime associated with heavy drug use.

"We can't go on criminalizing our drug users. We need the trust between us and the health professionals," said Kim Arnetvedt, an addict and member of the Association for a Humane Drug Policy, a campaign group.

Norway has the worst heroin mortality rate in Western Europe with 70 drug deaths per million inhabitants in 2013, according to the EU's drugs watchdog, the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drugs Addiction. In the continent as a whole, Norway trails only Estonia, with 127 deaths per million. The average is 16.

Like most of Bergen's estimated 1,100 regular users, Arnetvedt spends much of his time near the city-run Straxhuset needle exchange center between the housing projects and the industrialized western edge of the city where addicts can get clean needles, medical help and a hot meal. He reluctantly dips in and out of medical rehabilitation programs run out of centers like this, but is highly suspicious of a health system that he says is too close to the police and makes "every day of addiction miserable." He is treated with methadone and anti-depressants, but says he can't imagine ever shaking his addiction to heroin.

Outside the needle exchange there is a more-or-less open drug market. Dozens of users and dealers cut deals unmolested by police. Last year a crack-down on heroin users in the notorious Nygaards Park in the center of town drove them into the tourist-heavy city-center. Straxhuset leader Hugo Torjussen says the unofficial policy is to allow them to congregate here instead. The proximity of health professionals makes it safer in case of overdose, and the new local government has cut through political deadlock to sanction a safe injecting room for users to shoot up their own gear inside.

Norway mulls using heroin to prevent deadly overdoses - Yahoo News

[Juicy D. Links]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey

hotlinked

BERGEN, Norway (AP) ? The pale, zombie-like addicts staggering through concrete underpasses make an unlikely scene in wealthy Norway's picturesque second city. As a gateway to the fjords which zigzag the oil-rich nation's long coastline, Bergen is the last stop on a global drug route that gives it one of the worst heroin problems in Europe.

Now with a change in local government here and in the capital, Oslo, there is an appetite to use radical policies to curb the alarming number of Norwegians who die from heroin overdoses each year. Alongside traditional replacement therapies, such as methadone, the new left-wing local leaders want to use a medical form of injectable heroin to treat the most at-risk users.

The official goal is to wean them off the drug entirely, but even the most ardent supporters admit the most achievable target is to bring them within a safer environment, while helping to tackle the crime associated with heavy drug use.

"We can't go on criminalizing our drug users. We need the trust between us and the health professionals," said Kim Arnetvedt, an addict and member of the Association for a Humane Drug Policy, a campaign group.

Norway has the worst heroin mortality rate in Western Europe with 70 drug deaths per million inhabitants in 2013, according to the EU's drugs watchdog, the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drugs Addiction. In the continent as a whole, Norway trails only Estonia, with 127 deaths per million. The average is 16.

Like most of Bergen's estimated 1,100 regular users, Arnetvedt spends much of his time near the city-run Straxhuset needle exchange center between the housing projects and the industrialized western edge of the city where addicts can get clean needles, medical help and a hot meal. He reluctantly dips in and out of medical rehabilitation programs run out of centers like this, but is highly suspicious of a health system that he says is too close to the police and makes "every day of addiction miserable." He is treated with methadone and anti-depressants, but says he can't imagine ever shaking his addiction to heroin.

Outside the needle exchange there is a more-or-less open drug market. Dozens of users and dealers cut deals unmolested by police. Last year a crack-down on heroin users in the notorious Nygaards Park in the center of town drove them into the tourist-heavy city-center. Straxhuset leader Hugo Torjussen says the unofficial policy is to allow them to congregate here instead. The proximity of health professionals makes it safer in case of overdose, and the new local government has cut through political deadlock to sanction a safe injecting room for users to shoot up their own gear inside.

Norway mulls using heroin to prevent deadly overdoses - Yahoo News

Originally Posted by brassmonkey

hotlinked

BERGEN, Norway (AP) ? The pale, zombie-like addicts staggering through concrete underpasses make an unlikely scene in wealthy Norway's picturesque second city. As a gateway to the fjords which zigzag the oil-rich nation's long coastline, Bergen is the last stop on a global drug route that gives it one of the worst heroin problems in Europe.

Now with a change in local government here and in the capital, Oslo, there is an appetite to use radical policies to curb the alarming number of Norwegians who die from heroin overdoses each year. Alongside traditional replacement therapies, such as methadone, the new left-wing local leaders want to use a medical form of injectable heroin to treat the most at-risk users.

The official goal is to wean them off the drug entirely, but even the most ardent supporters admit the most achievable target is to bring them within a safer environment, while helping to tackle the crime associated with heavy drug use.

"We can't go on criminalizing our drug users. We need the trust between us and the health professionals," said Kim Arnetvedt, an addict and member of the Association for a Humane Drug Policy, a campaign group.

Norway has the worst heroin mortality rate in Western Europe with 70 drug deaths per million inhabitants in 2013, according to the EU's drugs watchdog, the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drugs Addiction. In the continent as a whole, Norway trails only Estonia, with 127 deaths per million. The average is 16.

Like most of Bergen's estimated 1,100 regular users, Arnetvedt spends much of his time near the city-run Straxhuset needle exchange center between the housing projects and the industrialized western edge of the city where addicts can get clean needles, medical help and a hot meal. He reluctantly dips in and out of medical rehabilitation programs run out of centers like this, but is highly suspicious of a health system that he says is too close to the police and makes "every day of addiction miserable." He is treated with methadone and anti-depressants, but says he can't imagine ever shaking his addiction to heroin.

Outside the needle exchange there is a more-or-less open drug market. Dozens of users and dealers cut deals unmolested by police. Last year a crack-down on heroin users in the notorious Nygaards Park in the center of town drove them into the tourist-heavy city-center. Straxhuset leader Hugo Torjussen says the unofficial policy is to allow them to congregate here instead. The proximity of health professionals makes it safer in case of overdose, and the new local government has cut through political deadlock to sanction a safe injecting room for users to shoot up their own gear inside.

Norway mulls using heroin to prevent deadly overdoses - Yahoo News

cumdumspter

[baddog]

You don't read very well

[j3rkules]

Once a junkie, always... once an alcoholic, always...

[mineistaken]

How about you care about your women being raped by "enrichers" instead?
Junkies did it to themselves at least (not that I say let them die, just priorities)

[$5 submissions]

Those leaders need to watch the video below

[BIGTYMER]

Drug addiction shouldn't be a crime. Selling? Maybe. Using? No.

[mineistaken]

Originally Posted by $5 submissions

Those leaders need to watch the video below

Of course we know that people turn to things like heroine when they have issues, problems or just generally depressed about life. Funny how this video creators think that they broke news to as and "we were wrong"

Surely it would be great to make all people happy so that they would not turn to drugs. In the ideal world