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In North American first, Vancouver clinic lets patients take heroin home

In North American first, Vancouver clinic lets patients take heroin home

In North American first, Vancouver clinic lets patients take heroin home
Sep 15, 2021 1 min, 20 secs

Donnie Cinnamon got into the heroin program at Providence Crosstown Clinic about a decade ago and said it has been life-changing.

A Vancouver clinic that prescribes medical-grade heroin to treat opioid addiction is allowing some patients to take home doses – a small but significant step in a province that is cautiously opening the door to a safer drug supply.

About 90 patients currently access prescription heroin (diacetylmorphine) at the Providence Crosstown Clinic, attending the clinic two or three times a day to inject under medical supervision.

By July, about a dozen patients were permitted to visit the clinic for their first dose of heroin and take the remaining one or two home, in a North American first.

Scott MacDonald, physician lead at the Crosstown Clinic, said it had been clear for some time that some patients needed more flexibility in treatment to work jobs and care for family.

Getting onto Crosstown’s heroin program five years ago turned his physical and mental health around, but showing up to the clinic twice a day still posed challenges working in an industry where 15-hour days are common.

“It was very, very difficult to go from a location site to the clinic and back to the location within a reasonable amount of time,” he said.

He now presents to the clinic before work and takes his second dose with him.

Pharmaceutical heroin stabilized him, but needing to be at Crosstown three times a day, three hours apart, meant he was tied to the clinic for at least half a day.

Receiving carries has enabled him to work full shifts again, he said

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