FREE HEROIN NO HEALER

I am outraged by your March 31 cover story "Heroin for Health," which
highlights a government program that sets chemical dependency treatment
back decades, but appreciate your efforts to enlighten the public on a very
serious issue.

The story indicated that $8-million will be spent on the North American
Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI), a government program that will supply
health officials in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto with the resources to
distribute injectable heroin (in combination with oral methadone) to a
select group of people with heroin dependencies. As the executive director
of the Waismann Institute, which is dedicated to the advanced treatment of
opiate dependency, I think it is a crime against human nature to facilitate
this disease rather than find a cure.

First, it is pitiful that the priority of the federal Canadian Institute of
Health Research is not to heal people of this medical problem, but to
protect society from them by perpetuating their disease. While it may
benefit the rest of society to see a decrease in prostitution, crime and
homelessness, such a measure would not help to cure those individuals who
are suffering from dependency.

Second, determining that all participants will receive the same daily dose
illustrates the program's ignorance to the medical disease of opiate
dependency. Every person who has developed a chemical dependency requires a
specific amount of opiates in order to curb cravings and suppress
withdrawal symptoms. By distributing a predetermined amount of heroin
through this new government program, some individuals may become over
medicated and more dangerously reliant as a result, while others may
receive too little and experience withdrawal symptoms, which would
ultimately force them to the streets to seek out more drugs to satiate
their cravings.

Third, this new program would supply heroin injections to select drug
users, but how exactly is the government going to produce this heroin? In
trying to create a systematic solution, they may actually contribute to the
problem at hand. Will they be contributing to the growth of the poppy
plant? By opening the door to drug production, what is next? Cocaine?
Amphetamines? A drug buffet on Sundays?

Finally (and what disheartens me most), NAOMI will convince individuals who
have unfortunately fallen into drug dependency that their cause is hopeless
- - so hopeless that the government will supply them with the very drug that
suppresses their potential. Instead of receiving drugs that perpetuate bad
habits, the people who have become dependent on opiates would be better
served by educating them about the details of their physical dependency,
specifically how and why their brain requires the drug to function and how
they can correct their chemical imbalances with medical treatment. As in
the treatment of other medical diseases, being informed about their disease
can instill hope that will motivate them to fight against dependency, and
become drug free.

The Waismann Method provides advanced treatment for heroin and other opiate
dependencies with the goal of giving patients a drug-free life. My
experiences have given me hope that the lives of these users can be turned
around. It angers me to see this organization give up on the promise of
healing these people, and I hope that this ridiculous program does not find
a home in the United States.

Clare Waismann, Director, Waismann Institute, Beverly Hills, CA, USA