Medical Heroin Doesn’t Promote Crime
February 17, 2009 by Peggy Rowland
Filed under Women's Health
Whatever your stance on providing heroin to addicts in a supervised clinic, you might be interested in knowing that a study performed at the Université de Montréal School of Criminology found no link between supervised heroin clinics and crime.
The researcher, Serge Brochu, looked at the Montreal part of the NAOMI project (North American Opiate Medication Initiative). The NAOMI project was established after research showed that drug addicts who don’t respond to traditional treatment would benefit from the injection of pharmaceutical heroin.
The Université de Montréal study found that the NAOMI project did not “foster increased criminal acts, dangerous debris, deviant behavior or emergency interventions in its downtown community.”
Brochu’s study included interviews (conducted between May 2005 and June 2008) with several members of the community surrounding the clinic, including residents and business owners, as well as police officers, social workers and homeless people.
Do you believe heroin should be provided to addicts in medically supervised clinics?
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