DRUG ADDICTS' LIVES ARE REAL TRAGEDY - NOT THEIR DEATHS.

I WOULD like to respond to Derek Williams' letter (Evening News, December 23).

The tragedy is not the death of a drug addict: the tragedy is their life.
May I say, their selfish life?

When addicts take drugs, is it to help other people, pr themselves?

Quote from the letter: "A dependent addict can live a full and active life
if he or she is given their fix at a right dose in clean surroundings."

Why should they be given anything?

Do they think about the people, who can't live "any" life, because they
were born like it?

Can these addicts hold something, pick something up, sit, walk, run, stand,
talk, eat, drink and sleep properly, work, play, turn on the television,
radio, CD, light, cooker, kettle, get in a car, on a bus, train, or plane,
get into trouble and much much more?

I have a 13-year-old son, still in baby large-size nappies, about the size
of a six-year-old.

We call him our "forever babe."

He has a very rare syndrome (snizal/gidignen), and can do none of the
things above.

But he can do one thing these selfish people can't do SMILE.

I would like to force all these tragic people to spend an hour with my son
and SEE what they're got that my son has not.

If then they still just think of themselves, the sooner they overdose the
better.

We love our son to pieces!

We have him 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, but know others still worse off.

But we feel "rage" for those who start off with everything, and give it all
away.

J Hutt
Woodham Leas
Old Catton
Norwich