Heroin (diamorphine) shortage
For the past few months there has been a shortage of diamorphine, which is known as heroin when used as a street drug. In clinical practice it is used to treat the pain of myocardial infarction and used in palliative care. It is also used in some schemes which provide heroin addicts with clean and safe supplies of drugs (no substance is safe in the hands of criminals) and enables them to lead normal productive lives.
You could buy heroin on the street for £50 a gram in June of this year.
The Guardian has an interesting piece on how the shortage is causing difficulties for those in drug addiction treatment programmes:
When diamorphine supplies dried up over Christmas, Chester was prescribed methadone, which failed to help the withdrawal symptoms that were as intense as coming off heroin. Sitting in his bedroom, anxious, sweating, shaking and in pain, he eventually surrendered. Pawning a necklace for £100 he sought out his old dealers.
“I had been out of trouble with the law for years,” he says. “Going back to that was worse because I had experienced another kind of life. I was terrified of being busted because I knew that it would mean that my girlfriend would have been left alone to cope with the children.”
Laying out £50 apiece for a gram of heroin “to keep the wolf at the door,” he racked up a debt of £2,000 that he is unable to pay, and that has put a severe strain on the limited family resources.
Chester is now taking the diamorphine pills prescribed by his clinician, but depression has set in and his relationship with his family is stretched to breaking point. “I think I am going to lose everything,” he says. “My family, my home.”
Some may not have much time for Chester, but it is worth remembering the case of Enid Bagnall:
Enid Bagnold, for example, who wrote the delightful children’s novel, National Velvet, was what our politicians now would call “a junkie”, who was prescribed morphine after a hip operation and then spent 12 years injecting up to 350mg a day. Enid never – as far as history records – mugged a single person or lost her “herd instinct”, but died quietly in bed at the age of 91.
3 Comments → “Heroin (diamorphine) shortage”
i was also receiving diamorphine until the shortage hit last (new year 05)and so have spent all last year hanging on in grim desperation.i have never complained or kicked up a fuss about the situation-although have heard of one man in my town who staged a suicide attempt in order to scare the doctor into replacing his script-on so called exeptional circumstances.People have told me to do the same but i feel i am a reasonable person,i am at college studying counselling and can well do without taking such extreme measures,I don”t want to cause disstress for my family or anyone for that matter but being patient,polite and not wanting to hassle anyone has only resulted in my still being on methadone which does not suit me and makes me quite ill-I was on it for several years and they were the most miserable of my life.My mother is a nurse and has noticed how ill i look and she totally supports my being on diamorphine.It seems the sqeaky wheel gets the oil,I have spent all of last year wishing it away,clinging on hoping rumours of re-supply or other scare stories such as hearing that the prescribing was an experiment and that it is now not financially viable etc,in short have not known what is really going on causing extreme anxiety to add to my other sometimes unbearable nervous problems.i honestly felt truly happy and was living a positive and fullfillig life after years of misery on differrent medications and now feel distaught,left in the dark,=no one has had any real news on the shortage for over twelve months!.Would this be deemed acceptable treatment for someone needing insulin or anti-biotics?.as i say,over a year waiting patiently and still no help,advice no hope even.I am not proud to be seeking treatment for addiction yet try to remane respectable and am studying to improve my life but feel am being punished for seeking proffessinal help instead of buying and therefore promoting illeagal street heroin/drugs.I am a human being with a soul and a conscience and would not wish my current situation on anyone,espescially as I have never resorted to crime to fund my addiction although many are excused for doing so,why do I FEEL i am being ignored?. YOURS STILL IN ANTICIPATION. name and e mail address suplied.
You are not the only one out there i just wish there where somebody who could at least let us know what’s going on,the service,s are doing nothing we recieved a letter last year in august saying it should be a least febuary how many more people have to resort back to street herion more and more are overdosing because of the problem,if there is anybody who know;s more please let us know cheers shane from lancashire.
I can’t belive the way not only us have been treated but also the situation as a whole,its definately a case of use the people at’the bottom of the barrel’as the government/doctors see us,to experiment on.Because that’s what i feel the whole diamorphine script thing has been,just big experiment with us as the guinea pigs,they can’t say it wasn’t working because it was its simply a case of a backlash from some quaters that have made the Government change their minds.Before the diamorphine scripts were issued i HATED using methadone,was prescribed around 50mls,an i thought that was high!but i was still using on top,in general,i was a mess.So when i was prescribed DM for about 1 n’half-2years i never touched an illegal drug,i sorted myself out and was looking to the future including a cut down and eventual detox,but then the rug was ripped out from beneath us!I ended up on an amount of methadone that before,i’d never have considered,200mls.But because i was told should only be’a couple of months’(anyone else?)i agreed.If they’d have told me then we would never get the DM scripts back i would’nt have accepted the methadone and asked for immediate detox.The only good is that im still clean(except meth)and i have stopped injecting totally becuase i wouldnt have the injectable meth and stuck with the oral. RE:I’ve just been told there is a way to get the diamorphine script back,in Greater Manchester,get your CDT Doc to refer you to Prestwitch as an outpatient and take it from there..But your CDT Doc wont prescribe anymore,well ours wont anyway.