Opioid dependence and management

Illicit opioid use, typically involving the use of heroin, is a significant health problem internationally. In many developed countries, dependent heroin users are typically daily, or near daily, injectors of heroin, and of other opioid and sedative drugs when heroin is not available. They continue to use heroin despite the significant social and health problems that it causes them, such as, being arrested for drug or property crimes, with subsequent imprisonment, exposure to blood-borne viruses and increased potential for contracting infectious diseases, and opioid overdose often requiring resuscitation