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Prescription heroin offered to addicts in Vancouver outside of clinical trial

Doctors in Vancouver, British Columbia, are said to offer prescription heroin to a few severely addicted individuals in the city outside of a clinical trial.

The move is claimed to be the first time in North America that people have been treated with the narcotic after being part of a clinical research trial, according to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Currently, Crosstown Clinic run by Providence Health Care is set to dispense the first batch of prescription heroin produced in a lab in Switzerland.

Crosstown Clinic Dr Scott MacDonald said: "The first patients to receive prescription heroin outside of a clinical trial will be a small number of people who took part in his two research trials, and want to remain under medical care.

"It is very dangerous and life destroying to have to ingest in an alley, to use illicit heroin three, four times a day. That destroys lives. This is an alternative.

"Some patients who took part in the trials have been able to reconnect with families and bring stability back to their lives, instead of shooting up in alleyways three or four times a day.

"I think all the clinicians at the clinic have seen the great beneficial effect that this treatment can have on people — hard-to-reach populations that may have been using on the streets for 15, 20, 25 even 30 years."

The drug was approved to supply 120 severely addicted individuals with prescription heroin, who were previously part of the trial.