Massachusetts Going the Extra Mile for Junkies

Goodness, talk about an enabling culture.

Mass. plans new heroin overdose program

BOSTON - Massachusetts officials next month will begin distributing kits to heroin addicts that include medication to treat overdoses.

Advocates say the kits will help treat overdoses quickly, safely and without fear of addiction, and will be beneficial in a state where more people die from heroin than firearms.

Each kit contains two doses of a medication called Narcan, which one addict can squirt up the nose of another addict who has overdosed. The drug, known generically as naloxone, causes no long-term side effects, specialists said. A single dose costs about $20.

The program, inspired by similar distributions in Boston, Chicago and New York City, lacks the support of the White House drug control policy council and some substance abuse advocates, including former heroin users.

Of course, without White House support, Bush can then be blamed for heroin overdoses.

They fail to note what happens if both junkies OD simultaneously. Maybe the state can appoint heroin monitors just in case. In fact, why not just supply the smack for free?

Heroin and other opiates killed 544 people in Massachusetts in 2005, more than double the number killed by firearms.

Some paramedics and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy question whether it's safe for one addict to administer medical treatment to another. Others said the distribution of Narcan encourages continued heroin use and delays entry into treatment.

"You give them the Narcan, where is their motivation to change? The addict is going to say, 'I just overdosed and I got another lease on life — great,'" said Michael Gimbel, a recovering heroin addict who was director of substance abuse in Maryland's Baltimore County for 23 years.

"Giving Narcan might give them that false sense that 'I can live forever,' which is not what we want," he said.

In a related development, the state also announced plans to install padded floors in watering holes frequented by the state's senior Senator, The Swimmer.

"He's known to black out after his 15th double Chivas," said an unnamed bartender at a Hyannis tavern "and it always get messy. This way the padding will help soften the blow and we can just roll him up in it and leave him outside before the police take him home."