Should addicts be sterilized?

Heroin (diacetylmorphine or morphine diacetate (INN)), also known as diamorphine(BAN), is an opiate analgesic synthesized by C.R Alder Wright in 1874 by adding two acetyl groups to the molecule morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. When used in medicine it is typically used to treat severe pain, such as that resulting from a heart attack. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine, and functions as a morphine prodrug (meaning that it is metabolically converted to morphine inside the body in order for it to work).^[4] The white crystalline form considered “pure heroin” is usually the hydrochloride salt, diacetylmorphine hydrochloride. When heroin is supplied illegally, though, it is often adulterated to a freebaseform, dulling the sheen and consistency to a matte-white powder.^[5] As of 2004, roughly 87% of the world supply of opium and its derivatives, including heroin, was thought to be produced in Afghanistan.^[6] However, production in Mexico has risen six-fold from 2007 to 2011, changing that percentage and placing Mexico as the second largest opium producer in the world

Project Prevention has long paid poor, addicted women not to procreate. Now the far right is helping it go global

“Don’t let a pregnancy ruin your drug habit,” the slogan on the fliers reads. Another says, “She has her daddy’s eyes…and her mommy’s heroin addiction.” Then: “Get birth control, get ca$h.” These are posters that show up nationwide in homeless shelters and methadone clinics, in AA and NA meeting rooms and near needle exchange programs, distributed by volunteers for Project Prevention. Formerly called Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity (CRACK), the controversial nonprofit pays drug addicts $300 to either undergo sterilization or use a form of long-term, “no responsibility needed” birth control.

Project Prevention in the United Kingdom

UK Toll Free Telephone Number: 0800 092 0422

Please Note: Project Prevention UK will not be paying for sterilization procedures. The BMA just makes that too difficult. If you disagree with this decision please contact the BMA with your opinion. We will only be paying addicts and alcoholics to use long term birth control until further notice. We thank all of our UK donors for their financial support and if this decision makes you rethink your donation we will gladly return it just contact us. Thank you to all those in the UK who truly “Get” what we are doing and agree that it is not okay to abuse innocent children. The recent story here in the US about the addict putting her 10 day old baby in the washing machine with a load of clothes (innocent Maggie Mae died).

“What makes a woman’s right to procreate more important than the right of a child to have a normal life?” Project Prevention founder Barbara Harris told Time magazine in 2010. The question is entirely rhetorical: her self-professed mission in life is to zero out the number of births to parents who abuse illegal drugs, particularly crack cocaine. “Even if these babies are fortunate enough not to have mental or physical disabilities, they’re placed in the foster-care system and moved from home to home,” she says.

Critics of many stripes have piled on. They argue that Harris’ campaign deprives women who are addicted, poor and vulnerable of reproductive choice even as it feeds their drug habit.

Some opponents say that, since the financial incentive is tantamount to giving addicts money to buy drugs, Project Prevention should be illegal.

Others say that if addicted women are viewed as not responsible enough to have a baby, then they should also be viewed as not responsible enough to give informed consent to having a serious medical procedure in exchange for drug money. more from salon