TREATMENT IS NOT ENOUGH

Re: The Elephant In The Room
By Michael Massing (02/22/00)
[http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n450/a01.html]

We should go further than just simply increasing treatment. The
government should make drugs like heroin and cocaine available to
addicts at the lowest price possible, perhaps even free. The drugs so
provided should be pure, and prepackaged in safe and consistent doses.
In return, the addicts must agree to register.

If the government steals all of a pusher's customers away with a
lower-cost, safer, purer product, what profit is there in being a drug
dealer? This, in turn, starves the cartels. Providing drugs in
consistent, clean, prepackaged doses will reduce both overdoses and
needle sharing, both good things.

Concurrently, we should also provide aid to former drug farmers in
South and Central America, and we should in some way decriminalize
marijuana.

Posted by; Allan Wilkinson