SHOW COMPASSION

WHILE I think it is unfortunate that Dr Carnley has blurred the issues of
supervised injecting facilities and the prescription of
pharmaceutical-grade heroin to some registered users; he brings two
important perspectives to the debate. These are compassion and a
willingness to consider a range of options in grappling with this important
problem.

His views are in sharp contrast to the vociferous "not with my taxes" and
"send them to work camps" comments of some of the correspondents to The
West Australian (Letters, 19/7). Presumably these people would also want
over-eaters, players of contact sports, speeders, drunk drivers, cigarette
smokers and others excluded from publicly funded health services. Is that
the kind of society in which we want to live?