• Problems
• How We Help
• Treatment
• Fast Help
• Family Intervention
• Secondary Care
• Accommodation
• Rehab Costs

Prescribed Heroin

Heroin use through the world is illegal - there are very few, if any, countries that allow possession, manufacture or trafficking of the narcotic. Many countries carry severe penalties for even possessing heroin, and some - especially South East Asian countries - invoke the death penalty for smuggling the drug. Even though this is the case the world over, in some countries heroin is still legal for medicinal uses - the UK is one of these countries, and though it is incredibly rare for it to happen, heroin can be prescribed by a specifically licensed medical practitioner in extreme cases, usually for heroin addicts that cannot be helped with methadone, and sometimes with terminally ill patients in a lot of pain, for example cancer sufferers.

Heroin and morphine are still class A drugs in the UK and carry severe penalties associated with them, so users for medicinal reasons have to be careful not to get caught out on the legal side of things - permission has to be obtained through all the correct channels before the drug can be prescribed, and more evaluation has to be carried out before the heroin itself can be obtained, the legal form usually being a tablet or liquid. Even though heroin is available for medical reasons, it is still incredibly rare for it to be prescribed to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms of an addict - methadone is by far the preferred method for medical institutions not just around the UK, but around the world as well.

Even though methadone proves to be the most popular method of helping addicts live a better life, heroin has still been employed in recent times in other countries, to help users prone to relapse avoid the possible pitfalls of poor quality street heroin. Such programs have been introduced in Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Canada, with Australian officials recently indicating they would set up special supervised injecting centres to help heroin addicts operate in a safer fashion - even though this is the case, heroin is still illegal and punishable by prison sentences across Australia, it is only in these specialist locations that the drug can be taken.