Amsterdam stunned by gov't halting study into treating crack addiction as problems rise

Amsterdam asked Minister Sophie Hermans of Public Health, Welfare and Sports to explain the sudden suspension of a study into a medication for people with severe crack or cocaine addiction. Mayor Femke Halsema and healthcare alderman Alexander Scholtes wrote to the Minister, asking her to bring the parties involved together before November 1 to seek a national solution.

“Every day in Amsterdam, we see people whose lives are increasingly being taken over by severe crack addiction. Their addiction is serious, and their problems are complex,” the Amsterdam politicians wrote. Some of them are forced to spend much of their time on the streets.

The Netherlands currently has no registered medication for those with severe addiction, resulting in limited treatment for this group. “We find this unacceptable. Everyone deserves the chance for treatment that can improve their health.”

Amsterdam was participating in a study investigating whether long-acting dexafetamine can be an effective and safe treatment for people with severe cocaine addiction. The first patients had already begun treatment in this study, called REDUCE, when the government suddenly placed it on hold.

The Health and Youth Care Inspectorate halted the production of the medication necessary for the study. The move was “unexpected and for reasons unclear to us,” Halsema and Scholtes wrote. “This threatens to derail a unique Dutch study into one of the few promising medicinal treatment options for severe cocaine addiction, just as it has finally reached the treatment stage after 12 years of preparation.”

They asked the Minister for clarification on why the production of this medicine was halted and how the study can proceed.

Because the study into long-acting dexafetamine takes time and “problems in major cities are mounting,” Amsterdam also asked for the early introduction of a protocol for prescribing the short-acting variant and the related drug lisdexamfetamine to people with a cocaine addiction. These medications are already approved for other conditions, such as ADHD.