First put the drug cartels out of business by decriminalizing all recreational drugs including heroin. People will get drugs if they want them legal or illegal, tainted or not.

The next step is to provide safe injection and drug-exchange sites with immediately available drug counseling and detox. So an addict can trade 1g street-grade nasty drug for 1g medical-grade drug. Medical help needs to be available to swoop in right as they are coming down from the drug high. Hell, provide some free heroin to wean the drug addicts off of it on the condition that they participate in the detox programs.

This might sound like the unholy lovechild of libertarianism and nanny-state socialism, but I bet this ?pragmatic? approach will be cheaper in the long run, and centralize addiction/voluntary treatment in a location we [the people] can control. It would drastically cut down on ER visits from addicts, which is already a growing issue.