AHS Views

A large elephant in China became addicted to heroin after being fed the drug by illegal traders. No, I am not kidding. The elephant was picked up, has done a year-long drug rehab and is now clean and sober.

According to the article, illegal traders were feeding the elephant bananas laced with heroin so he would follow them. They were planning to sell him, along with the rest of his herd.

Unfortunately, after the elephant was picked up to be sold, he started going through major drug withdrawal from heroin and was given methadone. He was then withdrawn from the methadone and released into a wildlife park – more than is done for most humans: they’re usually are kept on methadone.

If we could do the same for humans we’d have fewer drug addicts. Hard to believe they can successfully get an elephant off heroin, without replacement drugs, but they can’t do the same for people. Perhaps we need to find out exactly what they did and use this experience as a model for a successful drug rehab program.