Originally Posted by Yakk

Heroin is pleasure in a needle. Imagine the most pleasureable thing you have ever felt, and imagine getting it when you inject yourself.

Then imagine if everything else faded to grey, and your ability to feel pleasure becoming centered around heroin and only heroin.

It isn't intoxication that's the problem. It's the hijacking of the human reward mechanism.

So, the stride is to remove none of the reward mechanism, but change the behaviour that reward mechanism is causing the person to engage in. Make heroin a given -- not something you have to lie, cheat or steal for -- and build up a normal reward structure outside of heroin. Give them something to live for before seeking to remove the heroin.