HEROIN: PUT PUBLIC HEALTH BEFORE POLITICS

Re: "Afghanistan: A Modest Proposal," by Gwynne Dyer, International,
September 21-27, 2006.

Heroin produced in Afghanistan is primarily consumed in Europe, a
continent experimenting with harm reduction alternatives to the U.S.
government's global drug war. Switzerland's heroin maintenance trials
have been shown to reduce drug-related disease, death and crime among
chronic users. Addicts would not be sharing needles if not for zero
tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes, nor would they
be committing crimes if not for artificially inflated black market
prices.

Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting
eliminates many of the problems associated with illicit heroin use.
Prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a
core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking
unprofitable and spare future generations addiction. Putting public
health before politics may send the wrong message to children, but I
like to think the children are more important than the message.

Robert Sharpe,

MPA Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy