The idea of giving heroin addicts heroin to keep them from crime and other dangers has never been popular with American politicians. Yet several Western European countries routinely provide pharmaceutical-grade heroin to high-risk users in medically-supervised facilities with minimal problems; the patients in these programs are much less likely to use street heroin when compared with patients in methadone programs. Given the tripling in heroin-related deaths in the last five years, it is time to give this innovation prompt consideration.