Heroin Users to Receive Free Foil From NHS

Status
Not open for further replies.
Northerner

Northerner

Admin (Retired)
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Heroin users will be given free foil by healthcare professionals to help them break their addiction, the government has announced today.

The move follows a report by the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs which concluded last year that offering foil can help an addict in their eventual recovery.

This is by encouraging users to smoke rather than inject the drug, and also to provide a safer way of heating up the drug – addicts using tin foil designed for cooking are at risk of toxins from vegetable oil released when the foil is burnt.

Addicts use foil to warm heroin and breathe in its fumes in a practice known amongst users as "chasing the dragon". Other drugs such as crystal meth and cocaine can also be taken this way.

Health experts believe that the new policy will make users think twice about injecting substances, which can lead to blood-borne viruses like HIV and hepatitis B and also damages veins and soft tissue.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/heroin-users-receive-free-foil-nhs-1460311

Interesting. How about giving blood glucose test strips to those who need them in order to monitor and adapt their diet, thus avoiding expensive and life-altering complications? 🙄

So, there are as many heroin addicts in the UK as there are Type 1 diabetics! 😱
 
Hmmm, I'm not convinced that will make much difference. I'd rather the money was spent on diabetics getting more test strips or cancer sufferers not being denied life saving drugs because of the cost. I know addicts need help, but I find it hard to sympathise with them when nobody forced them to start taking the stuff in the first place.

Apologies if that sounds harsh, and maybe I don't understand addictions, nobody I know has ever had one. But as the NHS is so strapped for cash I'd rather it prioritised people who have done nothing to cause their condition.

I suppose it's a case of where do you draw the line. My husband recently spent a night on the spinal ward in hospital, having had a bit of a crash landing on his paraglider and hurting his back. Luckily he was declared stable and released the next day needing no treatment other than some strong painkillers, but I suppose somebody could say that he shouldn't have been doing such a silly activity in the first place...

Tricky isn't it?
 
What I (admit I don't) understand is why foil should be such an onerous cost when you can afford heroin :confused:
 
And if you're off your head and desperate for your next fix are you really going to stop and think that injecting isn't such a good idea, oh whoopee I've got my free bit of foil so I'll inhale it instead?!
 
That's where I'm coming unstuck too, foil? I mean you can pick it up for practically nothing. I wondered maybe if it's because needles are free and literally every penny goes on the heroine itself?? I do think the NHS should offer addiction services but I'm finding it hard to understand the tin foil advantage :confused:
 
Maybe because it's cheap, some bright spark has said "oh look, this won't cost us much and it will help to save lives by getting people off nasty drugs" 😎
 
It must be 'special' foil not the stuff we use in the kitchen. I can sympathise with some addicts cos often their earlier lives have been hell but seeing children with cancer and suchlike it makes you wonder what difference a bit of foil is going to make, probably at great cost, when funding is being cut elsewhere
 
It's about time they made the drugs available so we can rid the streets of dealers.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top