No heroin overdose deaths in Finland last year

More addicts substitute buprenorphine for heroin

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The Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Helsinki reports that there were no overdose deaths from heroin in Finland last year. So far this year there has been only one. Heroin deaths have been declining since the peak year, 2000, when 60 people died of overdoses.
      Erkki Vuori, head of the Department of Forensic Medicine, sees a number of reasons for the trend.
      He notes that both the supply of heroin and demand for it have declined, and the quality of heroin available on the black market has deteriorated. Many users have also switched to the drug buprenorphine, which is sold under the brand name Subutex®.
      Vuori says that another reason for the trend could be that many of Finland’s heroin users are already dead.
     
Users of buprenorphine are not as susceptible to death from overdose as those who use heroin. However, buprenorphine can also be dangerous, especially when used in combination with alcohol and other drugs.
      Staff at clinics offering addicts the opportunity to exchange used needles and syringes for clean ones report that users of buprenorphine are usually in better shape than heroin users.
      The recreational use of buprenorphine seems to be a uniquely Finnish feature. In many countries it is available on prescription as a heroin substitute. In Finland many users actually started with buprenorphine.
      Sanni Joutsenlahti and Marina Stendahl work at the Vinkki advice centre for intravenous drug users in Kontula in the east of Helsinki. They note that the effects of buprenorphine are longer-lasting than those of heroin. Buprenorphine keeps withdrawal symptoms away for up to 24 hours, while the symptoms of heroin withdrawal can emerge in just six to eight hours after the last dose.
      They also say that buprenorphine users are generally more coherent than those using heroin.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  After Estonian crackdown, Finnish addicts flock to Latvia for Subutex® (22.3.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat