Healing the Dragon

It is a sad reflection upon the field that practices §and procedures for the treatment of heroin use §disorders can so easily be introduced and applied §without (or even contrary to) evidence. In South §Africa, the field of heroin use disorder §intervention has been in transition since the §outbreak of the heroin epidemic. Yet despite growing §evidence of an association between heroin dependents §use of supplementary intervention services and §intervention outcomes, heroin use disorder §intervention programmes in South Africa generally §fail to meet international intervention standards. §This study, the first of its nature in South Africa §and the Arican continent, delved into the insights §of ten heroin use disorder specialists and §synthesised the findings with the results of a §previous study undertaken by the author relating to §forty long-term voluntarily abstinent heroin §dependents,study findings supported the maturing out §hypothesis of heroin dependence. Findings of the §present study suggest that the field is less in §transition now than it was in 1995. Interventions §and procedures have begun to be integrated routinely §into clinical practice.