Norway to test free heroin for drug addicts: report
Norway is going to test out a new program that involves prescribing free heroin to its most serious drug addicts.
The Norwegian government said that the program is an attempt to improve the living conditions of the addicts.
The Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs will be identifying patients likely to benefit from the program and looking into how it will be implemented and what the costs would be.
Norway has one of the highest overdose mortality rates in Europe, coming in at 81 deaths per million in 2015, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
It’s already been adopted or tested in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark and supporters argue it not only reduces overdose deaths, but reduces crime too.
The health ministry says that first treatment for the project will begin in 2020 at the earliest.
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