BAD DRUGS - WHEN IT COMES TO STREET DRUGS, THERE'S NO OTHER KIND

News that 16 people died last weekend from an apparent drug overdose,
possibly of a lethal combination of cocaine and heroin, is shocking. Most
of the victims were Hispanic men, many were young and one was a 16-year-old
girl. But the news that fatal overdoses in Harris County average two or
three per weekend arguably is far more frightening.

News reports indicate that the number of lethal and nonlethal overdoses
seen by Houston-area medical personnel has skyrocketed inexplicably. There
were 31 overdoses in July this year, compared to two that month last year.
Similarly, the number of overdoses in June of this year jumped to 29, or 26
more than during that period in 2000.

One Chronicle reader cruelly suggested that the solution to drug use is to
put batches of bad narcotics on the street so that drug users could "wipe
themselves out." But drug addicts, no matter that their woes generally are
self-inflicted, should not be punished by death for their destructive
behavior. No parent deserves a dead teenager because the child experimented
with drugs. Better that troubled young people had the kind of access to
effective drug treatment that recording artists and movie stars apparently
take for granted.

To prevent more deaths on this scale, local police and Drug Enforcement
Administration officials are trying to find the source of the lethal drugs.
They'll also investigate whether the drugs were overly potent or
contaminated, and whether the drugs were sold to intentionally cause
overdoses. Four people have been arrested for selling drugs associated with
the overdose deaths.

There has been a lot of discussion of "bad drugs" since this spate of
drug-related fatalities. But heroin and cocaine are bad drugs every day of
the week, even when they don't kill. It would be gratifying if this tragedy
caused people to recognize that trying street drugs even once could mean death.