HEROIN ADDICTS NEED OUR HELP

Re: "Heroin for junkies, no medicine for ill," letters, April 2.

In answer to the query whether hospital wards would "be under more stress,
with an influx of addicts coming for the freebies" due to the free heroin
program -- no, that's what the safe injections sites are for.

After all, heroin addicts are "genuine needy folks" who (until they can get
off it) need heroin "to stay alive."

Unfortunately, many seem content to harbour outdated notions that heroin
addiction is a moral failing, perpetuating ignorance of the scientific fact
that it is as much an illness as anything else being treated by the
PharmaCare program.

We'll never get-with-the-program regarding heroin addiction unless myths
regarding the nature of addiction are dispelled to prevent ignorance being
the basis for public resistance to sound drug rehabilitation policy.

Liz Stonard, Coombs