THE use of so called "quick fix" solutions to serious drug addiction has become a controversial issue in medical circles. The Eastern Health Board has examined some of the "instant detoxification" options being offered to heroin addicts in Britain, but has so far decided not to introduce them in the Republic, principally due to fears over their safety.
"We're examining its potential, but we're still awaiting conclusive evidence on its safety in all situations", an EHB spokesperson said yesterday.
While the EHB's experts have not ruled out introducing such schemes in the future, most of those now available are considered to be at an experimental stage.
Fears about the procedure have been increased by the case of Mr Brendan Woolhead, the Irishman who survived the IRA's Aldvych bus bomb in February last year only to die eight months later after treatment for heroin addiction at a private clinic in London.
The principle behind "quick fix" detoxification courses is that heroin addicts can be given a cocktail of drugs which forces the heroin from their bodies and blocks subsequent addiction.
The most common drug in the process is the heroin blocking antagonist Naltrexone, which the addict can continue to take for up to a year after treatment.
The initial procedure is typically carried out under general anaesthetic. This is designed to allow the addict to avoid "cold turkey", but it has raised fears among medical experts, some of whom consider it dangerous to anaesthetise a frail addict who may have taken an unknown mixture of drugs.
The EHB experts who visited Britain late last year to study the process were motivated partly by the growth in demand in Dublin for methadone, a long term heroin substitute given to addicts over many years. There had been suggestions that the problem of growing waiting lists for methadone clinics in Dublin might be solved if a "quickfix" proved workable. However, the experts remained concerned about the procedure and instead set about expanding their methadone programmes.
When the "quickfix" schemes were being promoted in Britain last year one private company was offering the treatment to addicts for about £4,000.
Last month, a London coroner's court was told that Mr Woolhead had booked into a private clinic for treatment to wean him off heroin. Thirty hours after the "ultra rapid opiate detoxification" began - which involved his taking 15 different drugs - he went into a convulsion and died.
A consultant at the clinic said he had not known Mr Woolhead had suffered severe head injuries from the bombing earlier that year. But two medical experts from other hospitals, appearing for Mr Woolhead's family, said they believed he died from the "negligent" and "reckless" way the treatment was administered.
The Westminster coroner, Dr Paul Knapman, adjourned the inquest, saying the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Crown Prosecution Service should consider whether "criminal matters" arose.