Im always amazed to stumble across fields of opium poppies in the UK

Here, as far as the eye can see, near Winchester, yesterday

All 100% legal for use as opioid medicines (inc. diamorphine aka heroin)

Puts our international interdiction/ eradication efforts in perspective

Any country can produce opium for medical uses under the auspices of the UN drug conventions. This legal prod& #39;n (until recent bumper harvests in Afghanistan, around 50% of global total) is not associated with any of the probs of the parallel illegal trade https://transformdrugs.org/product/legal-opium-production-for-medial-use-in-mexico-options-practicalities-and-challenges/">https://transformdrugs.org/product/l...

Opium is used to produce a range of medicines including codiene, oxycodone, morphine and daimorphine (heroin). Other opioids like fentanyl and methadone are made entirely synthetically.

The UK is, in fact, the world largest producer and exporter of medical heroin.
3/

Some heroin legally produced in the UK is prescribed to people dependent on heroin - as part of a treatment/harm reduction programme (heroin assisted therapy, or HAT).

HAT has existed in the UK since the 20s, but was refined in Switzerland in the 80s

https://transformdrugs.org/product/heroin-assisted-treatment-in-switzerland-successfully-regulating-the-supply-and-use-of-a-high-risk-injectable-drug/
4">https://transformdrugs.org/product/h...

For ppl who& #39;ve failed in other treatment, HAT is proven to inc treatment retention & access to services (inc housing & employment), improve health, reduce risky illegal drug use, reduce HIV/BBV transmission, reduce offending, & stabilise/improve lives
https://transformdrugs.org/product/heroin-assisted-treatment-hat-saving-lives-improving-health-reducing-crime/
5/">https://transformdrugs.org/product/h...

The choice btwn a destructive illegal opioid mkt controlled by OCGS, & a legally regulated mkt within a public health model is not a hypothetical one.

They *already exist* in parallel.

The decision to follow the evidence or not, is a purely political one.
6/6