Not really, most heroin users reach a sort of stable dose, which can be very high. The idea is you stabilize people's lives. Prescribe them heroin for say 3 mo

Not really, most heroin users reach a sort of stable dose, which can be very high. The idea is you stabilize people's lives. Prescribe them heroin for say 3 months to start with. Their lives are no longer endless crime, prostitution, police cells etc. They can get housing and other things sorted without having to also find $1000s a month for a drug habit. From that the community is already seeing a benefit (less crime and the market for black market heroin mostly vanishes), and then from that you can start helping people reduce their dose and get proper drug treatment while living a far more normal life. There will probably be some black market dealing, but it will be much smaller scale and won't have anywhere near the scale.