HARM REDUCTION, HARM INCREASE

Re Europe's Approach To Drugs Is More Enlightened...It's Tougher
(Margaret Wente - July 17): In pre-Thatcher Britain, heroin addiction
was treated as a medical problem. An addict could obtain a
prescription for maintenance doses, whereby the addict could hold a
normal job.

Luring people into addiction was unprofitable; addicts could obtain
the doses from a National Health Service pharmacy for the standard NHS
price. The NHS could then wean the addict from his addiction, and the
problem was controlled.

When Mrs. Thatcher came to power, there were fewer heroin addicts in
Britain than there were in Vancouver. She replaced a successful and
inexpensive system by one that today rivals that of the United States
as being both immensely profitable for organized crime and
spectacularly unsuccessful in reducing the problem.

Richard Hooe Macy

Ottawa