OLD WAYS OF FIGHTING HEROIN DON'T WORK

In regards to the editorial in the July 31 Post titled "Taleban deserves
benefit of the doubt", I would like to make a couple of comments. While I
in no way condone the production and export of heroin and other opium
products, I want to point out that the idea that the ramping down of the
production and export of heroin would save money and effort from countries
like the United States is ridiculous.

Along the east coast in cities like New York, Philadelphia and Boston, the
use of laboratory-produced synthetic heroin is already the norm. The number
of people addicted to synthetic heroin in America is far greater than the
number addicted to brown heroin, the type extracted from opium.

The notion that people who are addicted to naturally derived heroin will
move on to an alternative if the market dries up is correct-they will turn
to synthetic heroin, which is cheaper to produce and much, much stronger
than its organic cousin. The end result will be that people who lose their
current supply of naturally occurring heroin will wind up addicted to a
much harsher and much more addictive substance.

Fentanyl compounds (synthetic opiates) are extremely harsh on the system
and cause a much worse addiction than organic heroin and cause side-effects
that are markedly more disturbing. People need to stop thinking about what
people and countries should be punished for producing heroin, and they
should start thinking about alternatives to keep people from becoming addicted.

In Denmark heroin addicts now declare themselves addicted to the
government, and the government supplies them with their daily dose. This
stops the users from committing crimes to support their habits, gives them
the opportunity to reclaim their lives as citizens, and gives people a much
more open and honest view of these people's conditions and lives.

Much more importantly than that, it dries up the demand for black market
heroin. People who are given measured doses under medical supervision and
without charge do not need to sell drugs to support their habit, and have
none to spare to turn on new users.

The end result-a result which is factual and available for all to see-is
that Denmark has consistently observed dropping rates of addiction, and the
evaporation of heroin-related crime. The warlords, tyrants and cartel
leaders who base their financial futures on the heroin trade will be forced
out of the business for a simple reason-dropping addiction rates and a
dissolving demand in the foreign market. If these measures had been
followed years ago, the druglords in Asia and in South America would have
no money left today to enact their terror tactics and policies of horror.

Jake Catlett, San Francisco