Alternative addiction treatment involves providing addicts with heroin

Dr. Dan Morhaim, a delegate representing Maryland’s 11th district, is proposing an alternative addiction treatment that involves giving addicts heroin for free.  Dr. Morhaim is drafting a proposal that he hopes will be ready for legislation in January.

He admits that it’s a controversial topic, but remains confident that his data driven approach can help reduce harm on the community.  Dr. Morhaim provided 47ABC with some statistics:  there are 22,000 hardcore heroin addicts in Baltimore- they spend on average $50 a day – multiply that by 365 days a year – that’s almost 400 million dollars just money to buy drugs – leaving our economy and going into hands of the cartels and terror organizations who control the poppy fields that produce heroin.

However whatever burden may be lifted off of society  through this program – critics say that it may increase the harm on the addict by isolating them further from society.

There have been studies in Germany and Denmark that have shown optimism for advocates of the treatment.  However the numbers on success are hard to pinpoint due to the varying degrees of what qualifies as successful.

At the end of the day – Legislation is going to have to wrestle with the battle between harm on the community vs. harm on the individual.