Up to 470 Vancouver heroin addicts will take part in a North American first – a study that will give free heroin to junkies.

As part of the North American Opiate Medication Initiative – or NAOMI project – carefully chosen addicts will be given free heroin or an unrestricted amount of methadone for 12 months. After that period, the doses will taper off.

The goal is to see if prescribed heroin is better than methadone for addicts who have failed standard therapies, and to find out if giving the drug for free will reduce homelessness and crimes linked to supporting drug use.

(CP file photo)

It already has the approval of the federal government, Vancouver police and city politicians.

The project will look much like one held in Switzerland in the 1990s. During that program, fewer then 10 per cent of addicts quit taking heroin, but the crime rate among addicts dropped and the job rate went up. Advocates for the drug-addicted in Vancouver say a similar result will likely occur in the B.C. trial.

Hooked on heroin since she was 14 years old, 21-year-old Rainbaux says she's desperate to take part in the study and kick the habit.

"I've tried detoxes, treatment centres, recovery houses, methadone. I've tried moving away from the area, tried moving across Canada," said Rainbaux. "I've tried everything. I can't do it."

Anne Livingstone, with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, says the project is the way to go. "It's time Canadians demanded this," she said.

However, the project does have its critics.

Dr. Meldon Kahan and Dr. Kay Shen, from Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, say they support harm reduction, but worry "the NAOMI trial has serious design flaws and major safety and ethical problems."

The spokesperson behind the NAOMI project wouldn't give an interview, saying he would decide when and to whom he would grant an interview about the trial project.

Health Canada is now in Vancouver to look at the proposed venue. If it passes inspection, the final go-ahead is expected within weeks.