Norway Contemplates Heroin Treatment Centers for Addicts

Norway took a tentative step towards a more compassionate drug policy this week. The drug in question? Heroin. The tactic? Opening up treatment centers where heavy addicts can receive doses of heroin prescribed by a doctor. The reason? A controversial report delivered to the government by a committee chaired by a well-connected elder statesman.

Norway's leading drug reform group, the Association for Humane Drug Policy, led by Arild Knutsen, called the approach "rational and humane." He told Norwewgian media that "it offers medical professional assessments as grounds for choice of medicine, rather than ideological constraints."

The news of a more relaxed policy follows a recommendation for "heroin addiction treatment"-- even for addicts under 18 -- from an official report by current Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's father, Thorvald Stoltenberg. The Prime Minister supports the nine-member Stoltenberg committee's recommendations.

The older Stoltenberg's committee -- comprised of a district attorney and a representative from police, government, religious, and community members -- attracted much attention when its findings were leaked a day before publication. The committee has been criticized for not including scientific professionals. Critics challenge Stoltenberg's chairmanship for a supposed conflict of interest: his daughter, Ninni, has suffered heroin addiction. For his part, Stoltenberg told NRK, the Norwegian broadcaster, that he is not "embarrassed" by his committee's recommendations.

Other critics include Norway's Salvation Army, the police community association, and some psychiatrists. The health minister has not taken a position, preferring instead to wait for the results of a broad consultation over the summer.

The Justice Minister Knut Storberget supports the proposals. "My attitude is that here we must dare to think differently. Over 60 per cent of those who sit in Norwegian prisons struggle with significant drug problems, and it shows us that we need other tools that are not subject to punishment and imprisonment."

Heroin may be one of the most widely consumed drugs in Norway. According to Erowid, current Norwegian law lists heroin as Schedule 1. The UK drugs charity states that users can already receive free needles but the opium derivative remains illegal to procure or possess.

Trey No Longer Down With Disease

Aside from setlist highlights, crunchy lot stories, and the occasional bitch & moan about hearing DWD at Shoreline and The Gorge, there's one thing that phish fans keep bringing up: Trey is sober. And they can hear it.

After being arrested on DWI and drug possession charges back in 2006 in New York, Anastasio was sent to drug court. Drug courts are a cost effective alternative to jail that produce lower recidivism rates than lengthy prison sentences. They're also more humane and aim to help people overcome drug addictions through substance abuse treatment and community service.

Anastasio recently graduated from the drug court program and is touting its effect on his life.

"I've been sober for two-and-a-half years," he says to applause. "My children are happy. In August, my wife and I will celebrate our fifteenth wedding anniversary. My band is back together with a sold-out tour. And in September I'll play a solo concert at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic."

He's also talking about the failure of the prison system for non-violent drug offenders.

Anastasio saw it first-hand when he missed an appointment and was sent to jail for two days. "I can tell you that behind bars there was rampant drug use," he says. "What's more, the people I met there spent their time blaming judges and lawyers for their circumstances. Not in drug court. In drug court, full responsibility rest with you and you alone."

If even Trey Anastasio can see that the drug war has failed so badly that we can't even keep drugs out of our jails and drug courts are proven to work at reducing spending, drug use, and crime rates, why aren't drug courts the staple? As usual, Ryan Grim hits the nail on the head.

Despite their proven effectiveness over the past two decades, drug courts have had to compete for dollars with the prison industry, and when it comes to lobbying might, the drug courts are outgunned. Despite the expense and ineffectiveness of locking people up, the U.S. continues to do it at rates higher than any other nation. Nationally, more than $60 billion was spent locking people up last year. States spend $65,000 on prison construction per inmate and another $23,876 annually to take care of the prisoner, according to the Pew Public Safety Performance Project.

While drug courts aren't a magic bullet, Anastasio is lucky to have been sent to drug court instead of prison and it's certainly admirable that he is speaking publicly about overcoming an addiction and his support for the program.

If it might work, Drug War policy makers probably won't give it a try

Gulab Mangal, the governor of an Afghani province, Helmand, wants to try a new approach to controlling opium poppies in his land. Helmand is the largest poppy producing province in Afghanistan, a lot of which goes to fund groups such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. He wants to stop the farmers from planting poppies, rather than destroy it once they plant it. His plan involves actively working with the farmers in his region to provide them with the seeds and training needed to grow new crops and improving their road systems so that farmers are actually able to get their product to the market.

To me, this seems like a pretty effective way of reducing heroin production, if that is your goal. One might think this would be a program the US would really want to get behind.

So far, Mangal has secured over $8 million from the United States and Britain for seeds and fertilizer for 26,000 farmers, as well as for a public information campaign to let farmers know of his plans. But just weeks before the planting season, he was still fretting that they would not arrive in time.

"Four months ago I raised my voice, but we have been delayed by bureaucracy," he said. "We have to get to the farmers within one month."

The US funneled hundreds of millions of dollars a year into Plan Colombia, which consisted primarily of aerial fumigation tactics and other military-like activities. The best we could come up with is $8 million between us and Britain?

I’m not advocating spending more money (any money, actually) on eradicating potentially intoxicating crops. I’m merely pointing out that this Afghan governor most likely knows the farmers in the area better than the US government. He has a plan that is much like policies many activist and scholars have been arguing for in coca producing areas since Plan Colombia began and before, and yet the White House continues to push for a similar eradication plan for Afghanistan.

Yet more proof that the US War on Drugs is illogical and destructive at its very core.