Amsterdam urges health minister to rescue crack treatment study

The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, has called on the government to step in to save an experimental programme to treat crack addicts with a medicine usually prescribed for ADHD.

The inspectorate IGJ has halted production of the medicine, dexamphetamine, at a Dutch hospital as part of an ongoing supervisory procedure.

The IGJ did not name the hospital or say how long the investigation would take, but a spokesman told Dutch News: “We are concerned about the quality of the medicine.”

Amsterdam city council said last week it wanted to start giving the dexamphetamine to people addicted to crack cocaine in an experiment similar to the methadone programme for heroin users.

The probe has been backed by the other three major Dutch cities – Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht – after initial research showed it could help ease crack users’ cravings.

Halsema and Alexander Scholtes, alderman responsible for healthcare, said suspending production of the drug would have a devastating impact.

Promising method

They have written to health minister Sophie Hermans urging her to review the IGJ’s decision and come up with a solution to ensure the study can continue.

“What it means is that the only highly promising method for treating these seriously addicted people has gone out of the window,” Scholtes told TV station AT5. “We can’t let that happen.”

The city council said the suspension of production was “unexpected and for reasons that are unclear to us”, but the IGJ said its investigation pre-dated the experimental programme.

A spokesman said the medicine used in the trial was the outcome of 12 years of research and development by the REDUCE project, whose partners include GGD Amsterdam, the city’s health authority, to develop a form of dexamphetamine with long-term effects.

Halesma and Scholtes have asked Hermans to organise a meeting with all parties concerned before November 1 to discuss a solution. “We value the independent position of the IGJ highly and are not impinging on their judgment,” they wrote.

But they added: “Every day we see people in Amsterdam whose lives are being taken over by a serious crack addiction.”

GGD Amsterdam estimates there are between 3,000 and 9,000 crack users in the city, many of whom are homeless or have mental health problems, or both.

The Trimbos institute, which specialises in mental health, and addiction support service Mainline said in a report three years ago that there were around 27,900 problematic crack users in the Netherlands.