Brighton,known as the "drugs death capital" of the UK, with per capita mortality rates higher than any other city.

Brighton,known as the "drugs death capital" of the UK, with per capita mortality rates higher than any other city. The city has held this unwanted title for six out of the last eight years – despite costly intervention schemes and dedicated work by police and health services to reduce drug supply and demand.With this – and an estimated 2,300 injecting heroin users – in mind, it's hard to fault Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust for agreeing to support a trial centre, and when I heard about the project, I jumped at the chance to join the nursing team.So, I've been giving people heroin for the last two years. People have often asked me if I think the treatment works. I do. I've seen it first-hand. But until yesterday, you would have had to take my word for it. Now scientifically rigorous evidence is out there.Our trial participants were all long-term heroin addicts who had failed to benefit from existing treatment options. They continued to inject heroin daily, or on most days, and their drug use was considered intractable. In my experience, many had little hope for their own recovery.The results show that, of those receiving injectable heroin, a substantial majority had either dramatically reduced their illicit heroin use or ceased altogether after six months' treatment, although marked improvements were seen after just six weeks. The average weekly spend on illicit heroin, per client, dropped from £300 to £50.The cost of injectable heroin treatment is estimated at £15,000 per person annually, compared to regular methadone treatment at about £3,000. It looks expensive, but if you add in the crime bill, this group of people actually costs less to treat with heroin than with oral methadone. Prison, which has limited therapeutic benefits, costs £44,000 a year. Not treating this group of people at all also comes with a massive bill. Estimates of an annual drug expenditure of £15,000 to £30,000 per addict are not uncommon. If this sum is to be raised through acquisitive crime, as is often the case, goods worth perhaps three times that value need to be stolen.Trial participants showed gains in physical and mental health, social functioning and, I can report anecdotally, self-respect. Almost all of the clients at my clinic have chosen to stop injecting twice a day and only come once in the morning. Two are living drug free. And nobody died.