DRUG ILLNESS SUFFERERS ALREADY FACING THE DEATH SENTENCE

IN response to a letter from J Holdenson, The Border Mail (April 3).

I am pleased to read that you do have the general public's interest at heart
when you acknowledge and inform us of the dangers involved with the
accidental pricking of needles discarded (blatantly) by a minority of our
drug illness sufferers.

Furthermore, you state "Anybody found with X amount of hard drugs in their
possession and/or dealing in drugs, be given a mandatory death sentence".

It is this line of thought that needs further analysis.

You seem to attack not only the drug pushers (rightfully so in my opinion)
but our drug sufferers also in regards to their thoughtlessness.

So if these two groups "producers and consumers of the `stuff' " are
destroying each other then why do you wish for the death penalty to be
administered?

Before I go any further on this issue I would like to share my own personal
experience of a young girl who had a smile full of light that encaptured
even the most rock hard individuals amongst us.

Her smile reminded you of the feeling you had when you got a puppy for
Christmas.

Every time she entered the room you missed your bus to go to school as time
stood still.

And even if it were Saturday morning, you would jump out of bed giggling
along the hallway, slowly and sneakily creeping up to her room.

But the excitement was so intense that your breathing would give you away,
then surprisingly you would have a face full of feathers from the pillow.

I never won!

The fun that followed her through life always rubbed off on to you.

See, back then I didn't need to know about this issue.

She was there, in my life and part of me.

Kristina passed away, all by herself in a Adelaide motel room just off the
wintery highway, in 1991.

Kristina, my only sister, was 24 when heroin killed her.

She helped mould me into the person I am today.

I will never forget the days that I had the privilege of knowing her.

The time and space that has occurred since her death, Mr Holdenson, has
allowed me to think hard about this issue.

Sure, since her death there were times that admittingly I belted the crap
out of drug pushers that attempted to sell it to me.

I was angry, peed off that someone could just permanently remove Kristina
from my life.

This issue of drug abuse, drug legislation, drug pushing etc is such a
complex reality in our lives.

There is just not one answer to `fix it'.

But I will say this Mr Holdenson, I do not agree with your answer.

Life is precious and everybody is someone's sister, brother, mother and
father.

For people to be penalised with being murdered simply because they possess X
amount of drugs.

They don't need our help to do that.

PETER DAVIS-SIANSKY, Wodonga