News (Media Awareness Project) - Australia: PUB LTE: Register All Heroin Users |
| Title: | Australia: PUB LTE: Register All Heroin Users |
| Published On: | 2000-07-28 |
| Source: | West Australian (Australia) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-03 14:42:39 |
YOUR newspaper certainly makes entertaining reading. On Tuesday we had
the editorial (We must break the drug barons) while five pages earlier
we had the headline, Drug lords to stay: police.
In Monday's edition a senior judge informed us that successfully
prosecuting the big drug dealers is now virtually impossible (Mr Bigs
go free, 24/7).
Then we had Mr Court saying that he was not in favour of injecting
rooms. While injecting rooms would be only a partial solution, the
comment must have warmed the hearts of our drug dealers who would have
been worried for a time that the authorities actually might do
something sensible for a change.
And, of course, we have the correspondents to these pages who come up
with all manner of righteous indignation about drug addicts and then
advocate so-called remedial measures which are savage, cruel and
definitely un-Christian.
To say that we can stamp out heroin addiction and supply is a
nonsense. We cannot even keep it out of our jails, which are
supposedly totally controlled communities. The illegal drug industry
is one of our biggest industries.
To say that heroin is killing our kids is a half-truth. Heroin need
not kill; it is the impurities, the varying quality leading to
over-dosing and the dangerous underworld environment in which drug
addicts live that are the main dangers to users.
Why not register heroin addicts? Allow them to buy heroin at
commercial prices from certain regulated outlets. This would overcome
the problems mentioned above. It would also enable us to monitor and
reach users so that they can be helped when they really want to get
off the stuff. Even addicts can hold down a job if they do not have to
steal every day to feed their habit.
And we would have fewer old ladies knocked over and killed, fewer home
invasions and reduce our prison population by about a third (each
prisoner in Casuarina costs between $40,000 and $60,000 a year to keep
there -- and we pay for that). It would even cure the Northbridge
street-prostitute problem.
R. W. Richards,
Applecross
the editorial (We must break the drug barons) while five pages earlier
we had the headline, Drug lords to stay: police.
In Monday's edition a senior judge informed us that successfully
prosecuting the big drug dealers is now virtually impossible (Mr Bigs
go free, 24/7).
Then we had Mr Court saying that he was not in favour of injecting
rooms. While injecting rooms would be only a partial solution, the
comment must have warmed the hearts of our drug dealers who would have
been worried for a time that the authorities actually might do
something sensible for a change.
And, of course, we have the correspondents to these pages who come up
with all manner of righteous indignation about drug addicts and then
advocate so-called remedial measures which are savage, cruel and
definitely un-Christian.
To say that we can stamp out heroin addiction and supply is a
nonsense. We cannot even keep it out of our jails, which are
supposedly totally controlled communities. The illegal drug industry
is one of our biggest industries.
To say that heroin is killing our kids is a half-truth. Heroin need
not kill; it is the impurities, the varying quality leading to
over-dosing and the dangerous underworld environment in which drug
addicts live that are the main dangers to users.
Why not register heroin addicts? Allow them to buy heroin at
commercial prices from certain regulated outlets. This would overcome
the problems mentioned above. It would also enable us to monitor and
reach users so that they can be helped when they really want to get
off the stuff. Even addicts can hold down a job if they do not have to
steal every day to feed their habit.
And we would have fewer old ladies knocked over and killed, fewer home
invasions and reduce our prison population by about a third (each
prisoner in Casuarina costs between $40,000 and $60,000 a year to keep
there -- and we pay for that). It would even cure the Northbridge
street-prostitute problem.
R. W. Richards,
Applecross
Member Comments |
No member comments available...
