Feasibility Research into the Controlled Availability of Opioids (Stage 1)

Abstract

Illegal drug use is a problem worldwide. Prisons are overcrowded with people whose criminal activity is related to illegal drug use and/or distribution. Yet illegal drug use apparently goes unchecked. Addiction to opioids is no recent phenomenon. The opium trade is centuries old. The question is increasingly being asked whether the costs of current social and legal policies concerning opioid use outweigh their benefits. Urgency has been given to the issue by the advent of the human immunodeficiency virus and its wildfire spread through shared use of injecting equipment in some drug using communities. Opioid use has become synonymous with criminal activity, 'chaotic lifestyles' and living dangerously.The present report covers stage 1 (feasibility). It has been prepared at NCEPH by Dr Gabriele Bammer who has co-ordinated a multi-disciplinary team drawn both from within and outside the Centre. Our collaboration with the Australian Institute of Criminology on this exercise has been particularly important, and the process has been monitored and modified by an advisory committee and informed by a large reference group of experts, both in Australia and overseas. Responsibility for the report and its recommendations rests with me and the authors. We have carefully considered the advice of all members of the advisory committee and the suggestions of the reference group. Not all of the recommendations in the report are necessarily endorsed by all individuals in either group. The two volume report is being submitted to Mr Moore’s committee and being widely disseminated in the ACT community and beyond, to inform and provoke discussion about whether or not to proceed to Stage 2. The report offers our advice that an ACT trial of controlled availability of opioids is feasible. It argues that such a trial would need to be very carefully structured as a randomised control trial which can provide answers to specific questions. These answers do not exist anywhere in the world at this time. We recognise that there are many uncertainties associated with undertaking such a trial, but conclude that there is a sound basis for proceeding to a Stage 2 feasibility study. Show more