DRUG CONUNDRUM

To the Editor:

The Chronicle reported January 3 that 17,000 San Franciscans
are addicted to heroin. That means one man, woman and child in 45 is
an addict. That compares to an addiction to opiate paste of one
American in 300. And in my most recent information (admittedly not
very recent), one American medical doctor out of 300 is also addicted
to an opiate. So much for the efficacy and need for the war on drugs!

It would seem that if one could buy the stuff at the pharmacy without
penalty, there would be no strung-out youngsters turning on their
friends in order to support their own habits.

I am an arthritic senior citizen and depend on a methadone clone
(Darvoset) mixed with Tylenol to let me do my own shopping. I would
dearly love to use heroin, which my doctor tells me would do far less
damage to my body and probably make me less grumpy. However, I can
afford neither the current economic consequences, nor am I willing to
suffer the Draconian social consequences.

CARLYLE L. HILLSMAN
San Francisco