IT'S ABOUT MORE THAN OXYCONTIN

Frederick Melo's July 10 article, "OxyContin use on rise in Cities,"
was useful but reporting the drug as the problem only serves to fan
OxyContin hysteria. That hysteria is used to justify spurious criminal
charges against physicians treating pain and political attacks against
any legitimate use of the medication. People in pain suffer for nothing.

Reporting the rise of OxyContin use is just descrying the rise of any
sort of drug use. Drug users abuse the drugs they can find.
Neuroscience does not fully understand the drive toward intoxication,
so how can we profess to understand it? Clearly doctors, not police,
should manage this issue.

If we outlawed OxyContin - taking it away from cancer patients and
others who desperately need it - we would accomplish nothing because
the black market in drugs would instantly adjust; so would the users.
There are always other drugs, right down to inhalants in our hardware
stores. Must we shut down hardware stores? Nothing can stop this,
certainly not the massively failed war on drugs. We must think
completely out of the box if we want different results. And we badly
need different results.

D.H. MICHON

Eau Claire, Wis.