Nevada Proposes Heroin-Assisted Treatment Program

Last month a Nevada State Senator introduced a bill that would fund a heroin-assisted treatment pilot program—the first attempt of its kind to introduce this kind of program at the state and federal levels.

Senate Bill 275 would “task the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health . . . with modeling a heroin-assisted treatment pilot program on the successful programs in other countries” (Lavitt, 2015). These kinds of programs are used in other countries and have shown promising results in reducing overdoses, diseases, and crimes.

Heroin-assisted treatment refers to the “supervised administration by a doctor of pharmaceutical-grade heroin (diacetylmorphine) to chronic heroin users” (Lavitt, 2015). The radical nature of this program is due to the fact that the US has rejected this method of treatment, despite its success in other countries. If the bill passes, the pilot program would begin treating patients in 2017.

References

Lavitt, J. (2015). Nevada senate considers trailblazing heroin-assisted treatment pilot program. Retrieved from http://www.thefix.com/content/nevada-senate-considers-trailblazing-heroin-assisted-treatment-pilot-program