Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

the Danish Parliament approved in February 2008 a pilot medical scheme to prescribe heroin to 500 of Denmark’s most seriously addicted and marginalised citizens,

(ii)

heroin is to be prescribed in combination with methadone with the aim of rehabilitation and to reduce the criminal activity of addicts,

(iii)

prescription heroin for treatment of severe cases of addiction exists as a therapeutic option in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the Netherlands and is being established in Germany, and

(iv)

trials of prescribing heroin for the treatment of opiate dependency in Spain and Canada also show favourable results; and

(b)

encourages the Government to closely monitor this and other pilot programs and to consider conducting a similar project in Australia.

Question negatived.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I ask that the Greens’ support for that motion be noted.