Høie will stop drug research - Bergens Tidende

Haukeland University Hospital wants to start a research project looking into the possibility of distribution of heroin.

– If research shows that this is good medical care, so we take it for granted that politicians will approve such treatment, says Ola Jøsendal, head of the Department of rusmedisin at Haukeland University Hospital.

Last December it was announced that Haukeland would seek Health Ministry to be handing out free heroin to the heaviest drug users.

Stopping research

At the time, Health Minister Bent Høie fast on the track and said he was going to say no to such an application. Now planning Jøsendal to apply for a research project with the distribution of heroin.

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Chairman Ranveig Frøiland believes Bent Høie be waited and seen what was in the application before cash rejected it.

- Such research will not need political approval. This is purely a research project, and the approval must come from the Research and Ethics Committee, said Jøsendal.

He says that when they sat down and looked at the research that formed the basis for last year’s application, they discovered that there were some shortcomings.

– One of these was good enough research on whom such a treatment may work for and how we can identify these individuals.

He says that he will apply for two research projects. Only one project to identify those who may benefit from treatment with heroin. If the first project is performing well, it will be applied to start a research project with the distribution of heroin.

Can work

Jøsendal says they hope to start with the first part of the project during the year, and strongly believe that such treatment can be effective. When BT spoke to Jøsendal in December, he showed that such

projects have been implemented in cities such as Zurich, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. The results from there thought he was good, and pointed to the fact that it has been less crime, lower recruitment in drug environments, and a decrease in the number of users.

Jøsendal admits that the planned research project is because they were rejected by the health minister in December but says that the matter would come to the conclusion that the criteria in the application was too bad.

Not applicable

Health Minister Bent Høie (H) does not like Jøsendal will start such research.

– I am against heroin assisted treatment. When Parliament considered rusmeldingen was a broad political majority who agreed that heroin trials supported treatment should not be allowed. Nor is political majority to go in for it now. I think it’s far more important to strengthen low-threshold measures, reception centers, and other services for this group of addicts. The work that we started with, Høie writes in an e-mail to BT.

Asked whether the Ministry of Health will do anything to stop the research project, he replied:

– A broad political majority in Parliament agreed that the trial of heroin-supported treatment should not be allowed. It is therefore not appropriate to initiate this kind of research project organized by the health authorities.

not concluded

Ola Jøsendal specifies that they have no conclusion about which patients may benefit from heroin treatment, and that this is still an open question.

– To gain improved knowledge and insight about patients in Bergen can give an indication for or against the initiation of heroin treatment.

implementation of the first project will advance thus not the commencement of a heroin assisted treatment and rehabilitation.

– The number of actual patients can be expected to be so low that it is not possible to draw firm conclusions, pure statistical reasons.