Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1417/a07.html?246251

GET REAL ABOUT DRUG USE

I don't often respond to letters to the editor. In fact, one of my roles in
life has been to encourage people to write them, to add to the dialogues of
as many subjects, thoughts and opinions as there are in the universe, but
sometimes someone makes such an irresponsible statement that it cannot be
allowed to slide by.

In this particular case, a writer from British Columbia was trying to make
the argument for legalizing drugs, I think. While making that argument, he
said, "In fact, the worst side effect of chronic heroin use is
constipation." That would be if heroin use was legal and if addicts had
access to the dope prior to its treatment by illegal pushers who usually
cut the stuff with all kinds of toxic substances to stretch their product
and make more money. But I beg to differ with this writer's point.

Gloucester is a city that has lost more people to heroin than I care to
remember and it horrifies me to think anyone might believe that statement.

Clearly the writer lives in some fantasy world where those who choose to
use heroin can, and they will be OK as long as it comes from a safe place.
The fact is, he left the addiction process out of the dialogue. And it is
the addiction process that kills, no matter how the dope is dispensed.

In a little more than 30 years, I've known dozens of heroin addicts and
I've never met one who had a little hit of heroin every Friday night after
work and stopped there. Many of them thought they could, but they couldn't.

Putting aside addiction personalities, those who are predisposed to
becoming addicted to one thing or another, heroin, quite simply, becomes a
physical and a mental addiction that is beyond one's ability to kick
without help.

Then there's the rest of the addiction picture, which the supporter of
heroin use didn't care to get into because he decided to declare anything
beyond the legal use of "safe" heroin irrelevant to the argument to
legalize it.

There is no such things as the "safe" use of heroin. Users always need
more. It becomes unaffordable. They steal to get it. They end up in jail.
They contract HIV. They overdose. They die. And they destroy entire
families in the process.

I can hear the rest of his argument now. I've heard it before. In fact, he
said in his letter, "Of course, none of this touches on the most basic
question, which is: 'Do people have the right to put whatever they want in
their own bodies?'"

My answer to that is, not always.

Many who wish to legalize heroin argue that the drug user is only hurting
himself or herself, but that isn't true, either.

The fact remains that heroin addicts commit crimes to get their dope and
the majority of us in this country have decided that is unacceptable.

Therefore, the substance that is capable of changing law-abiding citizens
to criminals is, and should be, against the law.

There's no easy, journalistic transition from heroin to election 2000 or
summer in Gloucester but, having said that, I need to do it anyway.

Over the past few weeks, I asked my friends two questions: 1.) If they
could do anything they wanted to do with the alleged federal surplus of
money, what would they do and 2.) How do they (the natives) spend their
summers in Gloucester.

Two friends got their comments in a bit late but, because they took the
time to do their homework, I'd like to take the time to get their responses in:

As to the surplus, one highly creative friend tapped her Republican sister
from California, who said:

"1.) Abolishment of the estate tax. It is double taxation and it only
represents a small percentage of the tax collected. So many middle-class
families have businesses that own property and property values have risen
so that families are having hardships with having to carry all kinds of
insurance and trusts to protect the small businesses to enable them to pass
along, upon their deaths, to their children.

"Many businesses have to be sold to pay the estate taxes, this after the
parents have worked all of their lives to pass it on to their heirs.

"This is definitely not fair. This is not a situation of the rich only,
this is a problem of the middle class as well. Many jobs are lost as these
businesses need to be sold. The really rich seem to be able to find ways to
solve these problems, better than the middle class;

2.) The marriage tax should be abolished, if anything it should be the
other way around, the law should pass;

3.) Surpluses are being accomplished due to the increase in new business,
especially the technology field, which hires many people. Taxes are from
the people and they should be returned to them."

As to summer in Gloucester, one thankful, 57-year-old resident said:

"There is nothing quite like Gloucester in the summer for boat watching and
people watching. I spend hours just poking around the working harbor in my
boat or riding my bike from pier to pier. Every wharf is a different scene.
Every square inch of the Inner and Outer Harbor takes on a personality of
its own. The variety of vessels coming to Gloucester is amazing. They tell
me the River and Squam, Riverdale, Wheeler's Point and Lanesville have
their own stories to tell as well. I'm sure.

"In 40 summers, I just can't get away from the working harbor. That's why
I've never made it up the river.

"It doesn't take much to keep me happy in July and August.

"I hope our politicians continue to keep public access or views of the
waterfront for all of us."