THE COSTS OF DRUG ADDICTION AND OUR ATTITUDES TO IT

I am a criminal lawyer. One of my clients was recently sentenced to 10
years in jail for the armed robbery of a bank in his quest for money for
heroin. He was on parole for drug-related crimes at the time. He says he
was "clean" for eight months, had a job and was playing professional
football but started using heroin when the pressures of life became too much.

Bank staff were so traumatised by the hold-up that they have been unable to
return to work and some will never work again. My client is now prescribed
Largactil, a tranquilliser, to manage his behaviour.

But isn't this a bit too late? If he had been prescribed heroin on his
release, the taxpayer would not be paying to keep him in jail now, nor to
have his wife and children on benefits, and the bank staff would still be
at work.

I implore the citizens of this country to consider the shocking price we
are all paying for refusing to treat drug addiction as the major health
issue it is.

Why is the prescription of mood-altering drugs such as Largactil acceptable
and heroin unacceptable?

Jennifer Saunders, Hall (ACT), March 9.