A big new review of the evidence finds that prescription heroin works [vox.com]

What happens when traditional addiction treatments don’t stick, and people continue using dangerous opioids like heroin and illicit fentanyl anyway?

That’s the central question behind a huge report by the RAND Corporation. The review of the research looks at two harm reduction interventions that try to help people who aren’t in conventional treatment: prescription heroin and supervised drug consumption sites. Both approaches are used around the world — in Australia, Canada, and Europe — but are very controversial and have yet to earn official approval in the US.

Prescription heroin, called heroin-assisted therapy (HAT) in the RAND report, is a concept that may seem counterintuitive at first. At prescription heroin sites, people with opioid addictions are directly provided medical-grade heroin.

[For more on this story by German Lopez, go to https://www.vox.com/future-per...-sites-rand-research]