Instead of an effective heroin detox followed by long-term rehabilitation, so-called addiction "experts" are recommending heroin addicts be "treated" with more heroin.

Have you ever injured yourself -- hit your thumb with a hammer, banged your knee on the coffee table, painfully stubbed your toe on a footstool -- and decided the best treatment would be to hammer your thumb again, or bang your knee again, or kick that footstool with your sore toe again?

Unless you’ve got a screw loose somewhere, the answer is no. You look for something to heal that sore thumb, knee or toe.

Shouldn’t the same logic should apply to heroin addiction? Yes, of course it should. But some people calling themselves addiction "experts" are recommending that heroin addicts be "treated" by giving them more heroin -- in fact, all the heroin they need to remain addicted -- oh, and paid for by the state, thank you very much.

These are the same "experts" who have been putting heroin addicts on the deadly opioid methadone for years, even decades, and calling it "treatment".

The problem is this: Few people working in the field of drug addiction today can confront the true horror of the condition they are supposed to be treating. Instead, they say that heroin addicts should be kept addicted until they are "ready to make the decision to get off heroin." All over the world, one for one, these "harm reduction" experts trumpet this insanity, supporting each-others’ ineffective and destructive ideas.

The field of drug addiction is two-sided. For addicts’, it’s pure misery and pain -- heroin addicts say they would like to be drug-free, but the pain and misery of detoxing is just too much to bear. On the treatment side, we have legions of self-appointed experts who, plain and simply, cannot confront the addicts’ misery and pain and do something effective about getting them off heroin. One gets the idea that the "experts" can’t tolerate the possibility that heroin addicts might actually get off heroin and get their lives back.

In fact, there is no need for anyone suffering from heroin addiction, or any drug addiction, to put off to some unknown future the opportunity to recover their lives. Such futures usually never arrive, cut short by drug-related death, debilitating injury, or long-term incarceration behind bars.

So, let’s clear up a few things, and put some sanity and logic into this deranged picture.

First, a few simple definitions might help the "experts" get a better handle on what they’re supposed to be doing:

TREATMENT: Application of a remedy to a disease or injury; therapy.

REMEDY: to cure, relieve, or heal; to restore to the natural or proper condition.

THERAPY: treatment of disease or disorder by a remedy, rehabilitation, or cure.

CURE: to restore to health; get rid of something detrimental, as an illness or a bad habit.

REHABILITATION: To restore to a condition of good health.

Now, let’s get something else perfectly clear. Heroin addiction CAN, repeat CAN, be treated effectively, and this is taking place every day.

The options available for heroin addiction, as some of these "experts" would have you believe, are NOT, repeat NOT, limited to methadone, jail, or "cold turkey" detox which rarely leads to recovery. And let’s make this clear, more heroin is not a sane option, and neither is methadone or any other drug that keeps addicts addicted.

What the "experts" are conveniently ignoring are a new generation of medical drug detox protocols that help heroin addicts successfully ease through withdrawal with a minimum of discomfort, fully preparing them for long-term drug rehab. With 24/7 medical supervision, they offer near-100% success rates -- the polar opposite of the more common "cookie cutter", "one-size-fits-all" detox programs widely available.

Steven Hayes, clinical director at Novus Medical Detox in Pasco County, Florida, points out that most heroin addicts try to get off the drug many times, and fail miserably. "It’s common for cold-turkey withdrawals to end up in an ER because personal health situations are overlooked, addicts are undernourished, and they’re often dehydrated." Hayes says. "The situation is fraught with danger, and just begs for failure."

Also, individual tailoring of the detox program to match each patient’s unique DNA and metabolism is an essential part of the program, and a major reason for its success.

"Cookie-cutter detox programs don’t even begin to deal with these factors, which is why they have such high failure rates and reversions to drugs," Hayes added.

So the next time you hit yourself on the thumb with a hammer, think about hitting it again instead of seeking real treatment -- you’ll get a good idea of what the "experts" are trying to do to heroin addicts.

Heroin addiction is a downward spiral to an inevitable early death. A successful medical heroin detox is a stairway up to life.