SAFE-INJECTING FACILITY'S 98% OVERDOSE REDUCTION WARRANTS A TRIAL HERE

BARRY KEARNEY (CT, Letters, November 9) makes three questionable
propositions: "There is no such thing as a 'safe' injecting house"; "Heroin
is such a dangerous drug that it is never 'safe' "; and "Persecute the
traffickers. Let's drive them off the streets and lock them up".

Frankfurt-am-Main has experienced a fall in ambulance emergency call-outs
from 100 drug overdoses per week to two per week over a four-year period
since it first established a safe-injecting facility. That improvement
might not be experienced here, but it does warrant a trial.

Some health professionals in some countries that permit the prescription of
heroin, whether for heroin maintenance or for the treatment of extreme
pain, consider heroin safer than morphine. Demonising the drug does not
make it more dangerous.

The vast majority of traffickers are users who traffic because they cannot
afford to satisfy their dependence on illicit drugs. The traffickers who do
not use - those in it for greed - have been offered substances that have a
very high profit margin.

The more traffickers locked up, the higher will be the margin, the more
will be the corruption, the more will be the children seduced to fund both
the dependent users and the greedy entrepreneurs. \

Peter Watney