TAXPAYERS PICK UP FREE HEROIN TAB

Once again, the taxpayer is the bunny Antony Howell (Letters, January 17)
suggests government provide not only free accommodation and free needles for
drug addicts but also, wait for it, heroin for nix. We taxpayers will pick
up the tab. He reckons such largesse will cut down on the crime rate and
reduce the cost of people and resources currently employed to try to address
the burgeoning problem.

Such reasoning is about as sensible as taking the addicts out into the back
paddock and having a couple of out-of-work 'roo shooters get in some
practice, at taxpayers' expense, of course. If a person decides to take
drugs and then finds the need to thieve to support the habit, he/she is a
criminal and should be treated accordingly.

I harbour some serious doubts about Mr Howell.

Merv Bartlett, Inala (Qld)