DRUG OPINIONS

Free Heroin Won't Work

I AM a 40-year-old heroin addict.

I have a teenage son who is a credit to me. He is on his way to study overseas.

I have been an addict since I was 16. I and most of my friends would
listen to the Rolling Stones and many other bands and singers in the
1970s whose lyrics often sent messages on drugs - very much like our
rappers today.

Nothing has changed.

I got stoned because I enjoyed it. I come from a divorced family.

My father worked in the north and he was rarely around (for our
benefit, of course). I have been on methadone for more than 10 years.

I have taken heroin during this time. I am still on methadone but I
have been "straight" for some time - no drugs or alcohol.

My problem is getting off the methadone. Doctors have even told me to
use heroin to get off methadone. Allowing a drug to rule your life
is, to put it mildly, stupid and I would not wish it on anyone. I
wish every day that I had others to turn to - people who would
understand the addiction, not the fact that I was or am a weak
person. I believe there is an answer out there somewhere - and it is
not free heroin. Addicts use heroin to get stoned, not straight.

Addicts need friends, family and lots of understanding. They need to
be able to work and be an active part of their community, not
outcasts.

I know it's a hard course and we need to pull together as a community
to stop the problem from the beginning, not after the victim has had
his or her introduction to the evil which is heroin. Methadone has
ruled my life. I can't do anything - no holidays or even simple tasks
without my daily drink.

There is, of course, the constant threat of liver disease and many
other health problems. I am pleading to friends of addicts and
especially parents.

Be there for the people you love. I know you want to.

Let's Get Tough

GANGLAND violence is the crisis that our leaders won't confront.

The National Crime Authority, by its own admission, is unable to
control illicit drugs and the associated violence that is levied on
honest Australians. The arrogant attitude of the Government to a
commonsense and proved approach to this problem helps only to
entrench further this blight on Australian society. The control of
all illicit drugs must immediately be enforced.

Our police force must be given a free hand, without wishy-washy
political interference that is influenced by equally wishy-washy
international treaties. History tells us only too clearly what effect
an uncontrolled gangland had on America in the prohibition days of
the 1920s and 1930s. Don't think that it can't happen here. The ball
has already started rolling. ALAN GIORGI, Bunbury.

The Drug Summit

PROFESSOR Fiona Stanley said in her address to the Drug Summit that
the standard of upbringing of children had deteriorated and as a
result we were now seeing many more kids with behavioural problems,
youth crime had escalated, educational standards had suffered and
drug taking and suicide were much more common.

She said that his had come about during the past 30 years. Well,
surprise, surprise, but that's exactly about the time that the
softies and goody goodies started to run the system and it has been
going backwards ever since.

No surprises, then, in 10 years when the next summit wonders why
things have got worse again. JEFF BUTLER, Leschenault.

THREE of my kids got caught up in heroin use. All three were at some
stage treated under George O'Neil's naltrexone program.

My eldest daughter died a year ago, aged 28, from an overdose.

She spent her last few weeks in a hospital in Denmark. The two
remaining children have got implants and are surviving.

When the subject of free heroin trials first came up, all three told
me that if there was free heroin they would never give it up. HENNING
BACH, Fremantle.

D. PUGH (Letters, 14/8) obviously has something against so-called
do-gooders and the Drug Summit. Although I think that the concept of
a do-gooder is unwarranted and ridiculous, I would like to know to
which of the other two categories that inevitably arise does D. Pugh
consider him or herself to belong. Are you an apathetic
"do-nothinger" who can't be bothered doing anything for people in
need? Or are you a "do-badder", like one of the drug pushers perhaps?
JARED EVANS, Winthrop.

I Disagree

THERE has been a number of letters recently on these pages stating
that people who sell illicit drugs should be "put up against a wall
and shot". I wonder if the writers of such letters have thought
through the implications of what they suggest. While there are a
small number of criminals involved in the importation, growing and
distribution of illicit drugs, it needs to be remembered that most
dealing in illicit drugs is done by Australians who, in every other
way, are quite ordinary. If such a plan were implemented we would
have to shoot all the teenagers and young adults who sell drugs to
each other. Should the criterion for being shot be the amount of harm
caused, we would also have to shoot all the people involved in the
marketing, advertising and selling of alcoholic drinks. Every shop
owner and employee involved in the selling of cigarettes would have
to be shot. This would involve hundreds of thousands of Australians.
In short, should this plan be adopted it would be a mini Holocaust.
It may be more useful to support the efforts of the delegates to the
Drug Summit who are reviewing the current policies to see if anything
can be done to improve social, economic and health outcomes for users
and non-users of illicit drugs in WA. ALAN WELLS, Wembley.