Dr.Andrew Byrne, from Sydney Australia talks candidly about his experience over the last 20 years treating patients suffering from heroin and opiate addiction.

NPR has developed a Five Part series covering the Forgotten War on Drugs. The coverage begins.... Nearly four decades ago, President Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs. In 1969 he declared, "Winning the battle against drug abuse is one of the most important, the most urgent national priorities confronting the United States today." That battle has been waged through seven White House administrations; in recent years, experts estimate the costs have run close to $40 billion annually. To listen to the audio and read more about this important series visit

"The Solution is the Problem" is a headline in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 14/15 April 07, datelined Tblisi, Georgia. It's claimed there are an estimated 275,000 IVDUs in a total population of 4.5 million, that the number of registered addicts has increased 80% since 2003, and that far and away the most commonly injected substance is Subutex smuggled from France and Germany at a 100-fold profit to the chain of traffickers. Reference is made to Suboxone (described as "new" but approved in USA five years ago and recently in the EU as well) which "produces withdrawal if injected" - but this is said to have only "long-term" prospects for improving the situation. (entire article - in German - available upon request) NOTE: widespread injection of Buprenorphine in Georgia and other countries was reported on the ICAAT site 18 months ago - in Nov. 2005 - and is still available for viewing in the archive News section of our website.

Analysis of UK Drug Policy was released April 18, 2007, by the UK Drug Policy Commission. Authored by Peter Reuter (USA) and Alex Stevens (UK), it "... assesses the evidence relating to the UK drug problem and analyses the impact of current policies." It is valuable reading for those concerned about illicit drugs and the many associated problems in UK and around the world. Executive summary as well as full report available here

There has been an enthusiastic assessment of methadone in Ireland! RTE (Ireland) News 26 April reports that 8,000 patients are currently in methadone treatment, almost 50% of the total addicts in Ireland. The programme was found to "substantially reduce individuals' drug use and their involvement in acquisitive crime." Full story .

The controversy over continuation of the pilot program providing heroin to opiate dependent individuals - a project deemed by all reviewers to have been extremely successful - has been resolved, at least in Frankfurt. An application by the city to continue the program for at least three years and to expand it has received an ok from the German Federal authorities. (Aerzteblatt.de, 12 April). Special Thanks to colleague Hans-Guenter Meyer-Thompson in Hamburg for forwarding this news to us.

A study by Davison and colleagues following inpatient opioid detoxification" (J Addict Dis 25(4), 2006, pp 27- 35) includes nothing that's new or surprising. It is, however, a sober and concise outcome study with findings that bear repetition and emphasis. The conclusion: "...the vast majority of veterans admitted for inpatient opioid detoxification had poor abstinence rates despite conditions promoting engagement in aftercare treatment and readily available naltrexone as a pharmacological relapse intervention. These descriptive findings directly support the growing body of evidence that detoxification followed by abstinence- based, non-residential aftercare is a suboptimal treatment option for chronic opioid dependence."

That was the conclusion of a study carried out by Boston Medical Center primary care clinic, as reported in Journal of Internal Medicine 2007;22:171-176 Specifically: "...despite homeless patients' greater comorbidities, less social support, and more chronic substance use histories, their outcomes in terms of treatment failure and illicit drug use were comparable to housed patients."

In an exemplary effort to prevent deaths from drug overdoses, the State of New Mexico just passed a law providing immunity from prosecution to people who come forward to help drug users during overdoses. It prevents the authorities from prosecuting on the basis of evidence "gained as a result of the seeking of medical assistance," and protects the overdose victims from prosecution if the process of seeking help for an overdose provides the only evidence against them.

A 26 Mar news clip of Xinhua News Agency states VN's Health Ministry has approved what's said to be a first-ever "pilot project to use methadone . . . for 700 drug addicts in northern Hai Phong city through December 2008." Funding comes from USAID and UK Dept for International Development It sounds like a good news story, but for a more gloomy perspective see blog...