Can Opioid Addiction Be Treated With Heroin?

RAND analysis calls for trials across the United States

As America's drug crisis booms, the RAND Corporation released a report Thursday calling for clinical trials testing the effectiveness of doctor-administered heroin to treat opioid-use disorders.

Recently released public health data indicate that the United States remains in the midst of a full-blown public health crisis, thanks largely to the explosion of drug overdose deaths. Drugs, especially opioids, are now the leading cause of non-medical death in the United States, outpacing historical highs for gun, car, and AIDS deaths. Alongside suicide, drug overdoses are primarily to blame for year-on-year declining male life expectancy, an almost unprecedented event in modern times.

The driver of these surging figures is the synthetic opioid fentanyl and its numerous analogs. The drug, which is synthesized in laboratories in China and then mailed to the United States or smuggled over the border, is both cheap and potent. What is more, most users are exposed to itunwittingly—fentanyl is hard to identify, and has appeared in cocaine, illicit prescription pills, heroin, and party drugs like MDMA.

More