ADDICTS WILL GO TO ANY LENGTH

TORONTO POLICE have made a big dent on the city's heroin supply. Now we have
thousands of addicts who are faced with the dilemma of where to get their
next fix. The price goes up, the supply goes down, but the demand for this
drug goes on. Addicts will go to any length to fill the need and innocent
people will pay the price.

Amsterdam is demonstrating an alternative to the traditional, costly and
ineffective war on drugs. If punishment is costly and imparts little
deterrence, than it's safe to say another approach is worthy of
consideration.

Treatment for addiction has been described as cheaper, dollar for dollar.
Leaving the responsibility of addiction to educators and health workers
would serve to free up our courts and police to concentrate on matters of a
criminal element rather than matters of illness.

Vince Musson
Newmarket

(Thinkers as great as William F. Buckley favour decriminalizing drug use)