NO EASY FIX FOR DRUG ADDICTION

Having read Dr Wodak's article (Herald, August 19), the vast amount of
literature upon which Dr Wodak's letter was based, and the response by
Athol Moffitt - co-author of the tabloid-style book The Drug Precipice - I
can only wonder if Mr Moffitt (Herald, August 24) and his co-authors have
read all the available literature on the Swiss heroin trials. Their
strident anti-drug rhetoric leads me to believe otherwise, as outlined below.

First, the Swiss trial demonstrated unequivocally that drug-related crime
fell as a result of the heroin trial. Second, one must be wary of
regurgitating the rhetoric of the International Narcotics Control Board as
that organisation appears to be more interested in pushing an unachievable
political agenda rather than dealing with the problems created by the
so-called "war on drugs".

Third, I have yet to see any scientifically unsubstantiated claims made by
the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, yet there are plenty of
unsubstantiated claims in The Drug Precipice.

Where on earth does Mr Moffitt get his costing of $500 million to support
50,000 addicts? Since bulk pharmaceutical grade heroin sells for about $1 a
gram, the cost of 50,000 people each using 1 gram of pure heroin a week for
one year would be, at most, a total annual cost of $2.6 million. Even
allowing for cost of distribution through legitimate channels, the
estimated cost is far less than the $500 million quoted by Mr Moffitt.
Perhaps Mr Moffitt cannot differentiate between the black market price for
a commodity and the true market price of that commodity.

The pivotal point lost on Mr Moffitt et al is that many of us believe that
society can only move forward on this issue when all recreational drugs are
given the same legal status is those other recreational drugs - alcohol,
caffeine and tobacco.

This issue forms the basis for point two of the 10-point plan recently
endorsed by the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation: "Maintain penalties
for unauthorised large-scale production, transport, sale and possession of
all drugs."

Drug-related crime will not disappear until the profit is taken out of the
illicit recreational drug industry. But then, a bit of commonsense like
that would be bad business for criminals, lawyers and corrupt police making
big bucks out of the current system.

Dr Michael Dawson, Department of Chemistry, Materials and Forensic Science,
University of Technology, Sydney Broadway. August 25

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski