Heroinabgabe is taken over by health insurance companies

Health insurance companies cover the costs of controlled heroin delivery for severely dependent patients.

The Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) decided that in future the statutory health insurance funds will have to pay for the treatment of diamorphine by severely dependent persons. The Diamorphine therapy is the controlled delivery of heroin to severely addicted drug addicts. Diamorphine is an artificially made heroin. However, a heroin (diamorphine) therapy comes into question only when conventional therapies such as the methadone delivery did not lead to the desired therapeutic goal. In addition, patients must be dependent on heroin for at least five years, have completed two unsuccessful drug therapies, and have completed their 23rd year of age. During the course of the treatment with diamorphine, a psycho-social therapeutic support of at least six months is required.

So far, diamorphine has only been administered with strict exemption in drug outpatient clinics to severely dependent patients who were part of a nationwide pilot project. The project was officially discontinued in 2006. However, as the therapy turned out to be very successful, six major cities continued the project. The costs have so far been paid by the municipalities in the cities. After years of political controversy, the controlled release of heroin can now finally take place at the most heavily dependent.

In the Netherlands, controlled heroin has been given to drug addicts since 2005. For example, according to epidemiologists' opinion in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 2005; 330: 1297-1302), the controlled release of heroin in the Netherlands has also led to a reduction in the delinquency of drug addicts. According to the Federal Ministry of Health, around 150,000 people in Germany suffer from severe drug addiction. About half of the patients are treated with the replacement drug methadone. However, in around 1,000 patients, methadone therapy does not suggest that drug addiction has already passed a serious stage of the disease. The controlled release of heroin is sometimes the only way for survivors to survive. In 2008, 1,449 people in Germany died of drug addiction. (sb, 19.03.2010)

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Press release Joint Federal Committee