THOSE WITHOUT SIN

Parents of young people who die from heroin overdoses have three burdens to
carry.

First, they face the most unnatural grief of having their children
predecease them. Then they suffer the knowledge that these deaths were
preventable. Nobody need ever die from heroin injection. My son's
post-mortem showed that he was totally healthy - not a thing wrong with any
of his internal organs.

We also suffer the stigma of knowing that they die as criminals in the eyes
of the law and most of our society.

With the latest edict from the Vatican, we find another burden being
imposed - that of cooperation with "grave evil" (Herald, September 23).
Presumably this means that my son - a confirmed Catholic - died in a state
of sin.

It also means that those parents fighting to keep their loved ones alive by
encouraging safe use, clean needles and supervision are also guilty of sin.

Jesus was a man who was totally in touch with the social problems of his
time - he did not condemn or issue edicts, his work was with the
marginalised - his church is showing once again how out of touch it is with
his teachings and the drugs issue particularly.

Tony Trimingham, Family Drug Support, Willoughby September 23.