Thank you for the question.
Detox has been used to treat addiction for a long time. It's still used to treat a lot of substance addictions, one of the most common being alcohol addiction.
However, we know that abstinence reduces opioid tolerance. When a person comes out of detox, their risk of dying within a month or a year is higher. We see the same thing in prisons and other situations where people are forced to abstain from drugs. For example, when a person is released from prison, their risk of death is 10 times higher than a person who was not forced to wean off drugs.
We know that opioid agonist treatment is necessary in detox and treatment centres and in prisons.
Thank you.