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EDITORIAL: Rx affliction

After years study, a group of B.C. doctors applied to Health Canada for permission to prescribe heroin to 21 addicts last fall. Permission was granted. It was right about then that mollifying the Conservative base trumped science.

After years study, a group of B.C. doctors applied to Health Canada for permission to prescribe heroin to 21 addicts last fall. Permission was granted.

It was right about then that mollifying the Conservative base trumped science.

Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose denounced her own department's decision. She also promised to close up drug access program "loopholes," thereby reducing years of study to nothing more than a crooked accountant's sleight of numbers trick.

The research conducted by Providence Health Care and UB C found addicts who received heroin under supervised conditions made strides in terms of both physical and mental health. This was not disputed, merely ignored.

Legal questions surrounding the study are currently slated to go to court.

The crux of Ambrose's argument seems to be that the Conservative government is anti-drug. The doctors involved in the study are likely anti-drug too, having witnessed first hand what addiction can do. But they are also, more importantly, pro-people.

While we do not presume heroin prescriptions are a panacea, the program - aimed at those for whom more obvious approaches have failed - is at least an attempt to find a new way to help.

The tried and true methods haven't worked for them.

Until we find addiction treatments that are both humane and effective, we all suffer.

The continuation of the prescription program should be determined by its merits, which is why it's sad to see the Conservatives Party using the issue as election fodder.