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Thank you HCLU for making this and all the other well produced and important videos that you have published.
From the Danish Drug Users Union/BrugerForeningen (BF) we are naturally both happy and proud, that our allies and our 15 years of common fight finally seems to be fruitful. But we are also reluctant to cheer too much, because there are still many things in the Danish Health Boards recommendations (read: demands and criterias), that could be regulated much more humane. First of all all participants must have been on methadone - which exclude those who have problems with methadone or just hate the side effects. One of the admission criteria is that one must have or be in risk of getting injection damage, but they still only allow injections. That is even despite that many of the users who would qualify for the project, have only few or no more veins to shoot up into, so we therefore proposed, that it should be possible to smoke the heroin on foil just like it is in Holland – and just as well that it should be considered important, as yet a harm reducing element, to implement snorting the heroin, so the users could have more than one option of administration, proven to be less harmful than injections. But non of our wishes have been heard by the un-Health(y) Board. We also find it difficult to see how the participants should be able to build up a better life, while they must show up two times a day or maybe even stay all day on the clinic seven days a week. On top of that they will still only be given methadone for evening or night dosing, and eventually weekend off and holiday, dosing. That is even despite the Health Board acknowledge that methadone have certain blocking effect on the heroin and that they both work less good than heroin alone. Generally we find it absurd that the users still can find much better conditions and more freedom at their local pusher, than at a 9.5 million € state project.

According to newspaper articles The Danish Health Board claim that they had large difficulties finding the pharmaceutical heroin. It actually took them just about a year - while they could just have asked us - we could easily have pointed them towards several pharmaceutical companies, who provide the legal heroin in the 7 other countries, where legal heroin is provided. Anyway they finally got a contract with a Swizz pharmaceutical company – but as far as we heard from newspapers, they must pay as much as 80.00 US $ a gram – which is extremely expensive for a morphine product, and actually as much as 50% of the street price of the best Thai heroin.

To make things worse the Danish Health Board asked the Danish police, how they would recommend the heroin handled – so the security around the Danish heroin is now extremely tight. Before everyone comes near to the heroin they must have a security clearance approved by the security police, and the heroin must be transported and in kept in special time controlled steel safety lockers. All other morphine products can be sent by normal postal service and doesn’t need any special security approval or time based steel lockers – absolutely hysterical – almost like if it was the “Ebola virus” ;-) or the Royal juvels and not just yet a morphine product of which there is kilos on every local pharmacy, hospital and elderly care home.

We still need to hear how the heroin is packed – if it is freeze dried and in small 30 mg. glass bottles, known from the UK pharmaceutical heroin, the price is understandable, but just as the users in UK we think it is stupid to provide the heroin in the most expensive packing available on the globe. It can just as well be packed in larger quantities – and then scaled into individual doses by a pharmacist or nurse. We also have scaling experts with many years experience, who would be happy to deliver that service. We have also heard that they will ask the users to ingest their methadone under supervision for a full month before anyone get heroin – just so they are certain to avoid overdoses and that the users are using the dose that they are currently prescribed. That is absurd because it was never used when building up methadone dose.

Anyway it is soon two years since the historical majority at the Danish parliament decided that heroin treatment should start as soon as possible. But nothing has started yet here 22 months later – currently 5 cities announced that they like to open a heroin treatment clinic, and the most optimistic bulletins now talk about clinic opening in the start of January 2010, but that is not possible. Here in Copenhagen the staff openings has just been announced, and before they all is hired and they been away to study other heroin treatment projects abroad – and the users has been identified – the clinic in Copenhagen is not likely to open and run before April 2009. And from there on we expect that we need 2-3 more years before we get conditions as we can live with in the long run – which is heroin on the local pharmacy at weekly basis – as with all other medicine. So the bet is on – will we have human conditions or maybe even a general legalisation first?

For our dear friends and colleagues who still fight for heroin treatment elsewhere – now your country have 8 countries ahead of your. One of the most important arguments as I used in the public debate right until we got it was this: – “It is not particular banana republics – but highly sophisticated countries” - “So why are our politicians dragging on their feet”? It is on the way marginalized people is treated, that show how sophisticated, and how much compassion and humanity a country have.

Now last but not least I wish you all the luck and positive energy that you might need to be the next country, that open up for heroin on prescription.

With respect and solidarity
Joergen - president
Danish Drug Users Union
(BrugerForeningen)
www.brugerforeningen.dk