Heroin-assisted treatment
They proved diamorphine to be a viable maintenance drug which has shown equal or better rates of success than methadone in terms of assisting long-term users establish stable, crime-free lives.[10] These results encouraged countries like Germany and the Netherlands to conduct their own trials and finally to include heroin-assisted treatment fully as a part of the national health system in 2009.[13] In recent years the British have begun moving towards the inclusion of heroin maintenance programs as a legitimate component of their National Health Service.Groups such as United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Transnational Institute have released documents advocating harm-reduction strategies, though only the latter mentions heroin-assisted therapy.And as doctors refrain from drastic changes in dose and provide post-injection monitoring, overdoses are rare and can be quickly treated with opioid antagonists like naloxone.