ENEMY OF THE GOOD

Editor - We, and many other medical experts, disagree with your
editorial opposing Proposition 5 ("A risky drug plan," Oct. 5). While
it is very true that treatment for drug addiction often requires
repeated attempts and that perhaps Prop. 5 has some flaws itself, the
approach therein is still far preferable to the status quo.

Thus, the California Society of Addiction Medicine and the San
Francisco Medical Society endorsed this proposition as a more humane,
medically sound and less expensive approach than imprisonment.

In this case, we would argue that "the perfect is the enemy of the
good." Our prisons are already dangerously overcrowded.

STEVE FUGARO, M.D.

STEVE HEILIG, M.P.H.