Second look at legalizing heroin?

Maintenance? That’s a program where pharmaceutical, clean heroin (or other opiate) is administered in a controlled, clinical setting to addicts who have not benefited from other, more traditional treatments such as methadone.

“The advantage is he can understand what’s going into his body and what his dosage should be,” said Clear. In addition, “He doesn’t have to run out and buy drugs, so it’s not a struggle. It takes away anxiety. That kind of constancy and quality control would begin to mitigate some of the adverse reactions to heroin.”

In other words, had Hoffman been on heroin or opiate maintenance (if we had such a thing in the United States), it would have been clean, pharmaceutical grade—not cut by unknown drugs—the dose he took would have been known. It might not have killed him, and he would’ve had medical support throughout the process, so in case of an emergency, he might have been saved.

But many people believe that “there is no safe batch of heroin. It’s a killer drug,” as Boston mayor Martin J. Walsh recently said. While that is true of street heroin, where the shadowy dealer is in control, it’s not true of a pharmaceutical, medical care system of dealing with opiate addiction, such as Clear suggests.