THE SCOURGE OF HEROIN

Sir, - Highlighting the plight of the "underclass" of heroin abusers and the
prevalence of drug abuse among young people in our society is both worthy
and timely.

Your Editorial of June 3rd and Fintan O Toole's article of the same day deal
very well with the complexity of the problem and the dilemmas facing those
of us involved in treating heroin addicts.

There are, however, two issues which I wish to clarify.

Firstly, there are no restrictions on the numbers of GPs allowed to treat
heroin addicts.

On the contrary, we encourage as many family doctors as possible to get
involved in the Methadone Treatment Programme. There is now a quality
assurance mechanism in place.

All participating practitioners are required to receive specific training
and undergo a regular audit as part of the programme.

The training and audit provided by the Irish College of General
Practitioners is proving very successful. Secondly, Fintan O'Toole suggests
that prescribing injectable heroin, as in Switzerland may be a complete
solution to the heroin problem.

It is important to note that the Swiss programme is used for only a small
number of addicts who fail to stabilise despite treatment with methadone and
other strategies. The majority of addicts in Irish methadone programme
stabilise and reintegrate into their families.

We certainly need to find better alternatives for those who continue to
inject heroin. - Yours, etc.,

Dr Ide Delargy, Director, Substance Misuse Programme, Irish College of
General Practitioners, Lincoln Place, Dublin 2.