HEROIN RECOVERY FACT CHALLENGED

To the editor:

Your report said, "(Heroin addiction) has a recovery rate of 5 percent,"
Hughes said."

That is a baldface lie. He can’t know and no one can. His 5 percent
recovery rate quote is no doubt based on his experience but he can’t know
how many people became addicted and quit on their own.

Thousands of GIs in Vietnam became addicted or at least habituated to
heroin use, mostly by smoking and snorting.

The vast majority quit cold turkey when it was time rotate home.

Of course some went back to "using" but who knows how many didn’t. The
point is it is the addicted what find themselves in government funded rehab
programs with a failure rate of 5 percent.

Mr. Hughes needs to define his terms.

Gerald M. Sutliff
Emeryville, Calif.