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Dutch Begin Heroin Maintenance Trial

DRUG TREATMENT

July-August 1998

In the Netherlands, a three-month trial to supply heroin addicts with pharmaceutical heroin has begun in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The experiment involves 25 addicts in both cities, and if successful, it will be expanded to include 750 addicts nationwide. The trial targets addicts who been on a methadone maintenance program for at least five years and who are considered mentally stable. the government is conducting the trials with the cooperation of the municipalities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In 1996 the Minister of Health appointed a commission to study the problem of heroin addiction, which resulted in the maintenance trials ("Experimental Drugs," The Netherlander, July 4-10, 1998).

Centrale Commissie Behandeling Heroineverslaafden - Tel: (011) (31) (30) 253-8802.