HEROIN TREATMENT - THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVEN THE THINNEST PANCAKE ...

And so it is with the following bottom line of a position statement of the Italian Society of Addiction Medicine (Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems, 9(2):June 2007, 5-10): "Effective treatment is far from being actually available to all those who apply for it, let alone those who may benefit from it. The first step . . . [must be] to spread and enhance resources to grant patients with correct and powerful application of effective techniques, methadone/buprenorphine maintenance being regarded as the gold and first-line standard for the average addict. If that will ever be the case, as we hope, we would need to provide patients identified as refractory with a salvage option, along the concept of harm reduction. In any other context, the intrduction of heroin administration programs would rather reduce the benefit than the harm." We welcome comments.