Medical plan for drug crisis

Addicts constantly hustle to buy enough to stave off dependency reaction.

- Jesse Copelyn

The government is preparing to trial a medically-assisted treatment programme to help heroin users who want to quit the drug. This is after long resisting this approach in favour of drug-free rehab programmes that have had low success rates.

In July the national health department requested bids to run a pilot programme to provide opioid agonist therapy (OAT) to heroin users.

OAT is a form of treatment in which people quitting heroin (or reducing their intake) are provided with medicines, called opioid agonists.

These drugs block the painful withdrawal symptoms that occur after a person quits heroin.

The health department has until February 2025 to appoint a service provider to run the pilot, which will run for 20 months.

It's supposed to operate at two primary healthcare facilities – one in Emalahleni in Mpumalanga and another in Madibeng in the North West. These locations were chosen as they reportedly include a "high number of people" who use heroin.

The opioid agonist drug to be used in the pilot scheme is methadone, a syrup that is taken once a day. OAT programmes usually offer it alongside other forms of assistance, such as counselling or therapy. The medicine is typically administered for a minimum of six months.

Clinical trials show that heroin users are more successful at kicking the habit when they're provided with methadone than when they're sent to drug-free rehabs.

For the treatment to work, however, people need to take it for several months or even years.