Quietly, gradually, cooler heads are starting to prevail in the addiction treatment field. The latest wonder drug for opiate addicts is subutex (info
http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/s ... efault.htm )
Essentially, subutex is an opiate agonist with up to a 72 hour half life. Opiate addicts who want to get away from the needle and the street scene can function reasonably confortably taking this drug by mouth and for a WHOLE lot less scratch than the street dealer wants. It's marketed almost entirely as a treatment for withdrawal symptoms and properly motivated people have had great success at achieving total abstinance in as little as 2 weeks. However, it's also a very good maintenance drug.
Essentially, because it's legal, it allows the user to either maintain or withdraw by their own choice while escaping the street scene, which is really the source of most of the problems.
A free man must be able to endure it when his fellow men act and live otherwise than he considers proper. He must free himself from the habit, just as soon as something does not please him, of calling for the police.
http://www.mises.org/liberal/ch1sec11.asp' target='_new'>Ludwig Von Mises
