THE DRUG WAR

Re: Target 'Victims' to Solve the Drug Problem, Sept. 9.

David Frum would equate "getting yourself addicted" to a bad stock market
investment, something taxpayers should have no interest in helping anyone
recover from. I suppose he would also favour denying health insurance to
smokers and alcoholics who need heart, lung or liver-related medical
treatment, as a way to send potential users a message.

Creating public policy that ignores or stigmatizes addicts reflects an
almost sociopathic unwillingness to confront the painful reality that
something as disturbing as heroin addiction can happen to anyone. I would
like to think that such unhelpful, intolerant proposals such as Mr. Frum's
do not warrant attention. Unfortunately, this sort of wrongheadedness from
an otherwise respectable source tends to take political roots (e.g.,
Ontario Tories) if unchecked.

Brad Wilcox,

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.