Category: Articles

Most heroin users who contract the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) do so through shared needles or other injection paraphernalia. However, about 20 percent of heroin users who contract Hepatitis C do not use needles, and it has been long suspected that the liver disease was transferable via drug sniffing straws.

In the 1950s, the U.S. government’s response to heroin addiction was based on law and order. Treatment services available at the time rarely worked (with an estimated 70 to 90 percent of “treated” heroin addicts returning to drug use), which is not surprising considering that the most common treatment response to heroin addiction was civil confinement, essentially time spent in a prison cell while going through detox.

Drug analogs are chemical compounds that are similar to other drugs in their effects but differ slightly in their chemical structure. Some analogs are produced by pharmaceutical companies for legitimate medical reasons. Other analogs, sometimes referred to as “designer” drugs, can be produced in illegal laboratories and are often more dangerous and potent than the original drug. Two of the most commonly known opioid analogs are fentanyl and meperidine (marketed under the brand name Demerol, for example).

Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved buprenorphine to treat heroin and other opiate addiction in 2002, few doctors are using the drug as an alternative to methadone, Newsday reported May 6.

A Suboxone study that was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) indicates that for young adults, longer-term therapy with Suboxone works better than very brief Suboxone consumption during detox.

After more than 100 overdose deaths over two months, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has alerted the addiction treatment community about a deadly combination of heroin and fentanyl, USA Today reported June 9.

Millions of people have used and continue to use methadone as a treatment medication for opiate addiction. Methadone will sometimes cause side effects. The overwhelming majority of people who are involved in methadone maintenance treatment find the side effects to be mild and bearable, and the hundreds of thousands that continue to use methadone on a daily basis are a testament to how well most people tolerate the medication.

Methadone Facts and Statistics

A series of opiate clinics in five Danish city councils are scheduled to have already opened and begun providing treatment services (including, in some cases, free heroin) to local addicts.

A Chicago-area study found that heroin use is at epidemic proportions in the region, with emergency rooms seeing more heroin-related visits by suburban teens, the Chicago Tribune reported March 29.