DRUGS CAN'T BE LEGISLATED AWAY

I hope thatNorth ShoreSunday's recent article on naloxone ("I want a new
drug," March 5) will help bring about a healthy debate on the most humane
way to engage and deal with persons who are using opiates. I have been
working in the prevention field for more than 15 years and have seen my
share of people die needlessly as the commonwealth deals with health issues
through law enforcement and legislative procedures.

During the past 10 years, I along with others in the harm-reduction field
have been providing training to people who inject heroin on what an
overdose is, how it is caused, how to recognize an OD and how to respond to
it. We also cover a wide range of health issues that affect members of the
drug-using community; this training focuses on building skills to help
individuals be proactive in self-care. The training sessions are aimed at
educating people who use opiates, and like most prevention projects, it
focuses on changing the social norms of a particular target population.

Opponents may say that heroin addicts don't care or are not capable of
changing their behaviors, but I would disagree. I have worked closely and
observed the population and know for a fact that they not only care for
themselves, they care for other people they use with. This may not be in
the same realm as some of us see as self-care, but in the reality of a drug
user's life it is caring and is often the first step to other, healthier
choices. They are the first responders to an OD and, if trained in the
proper manner, they are able of responding in a responsible way.

No one is saying "just distribute Narcan," but that seems what people in
law enforcement would want you to believe: that it would be passed out on
street corners. One thing we encourage our participants to do when one of
their using mates ODs is to call 911, but when many of them do this, they
are faced with arrest, as a medical emergency often turns into a crime
scene. We also provide training on rescue breathing and other techniques of
keeping someone alive before administering Narcan.

Over the years of engaging this population in this manner I have seen many
participants become more and more concerned about their health and welfare
- - sometimes to the point where they finally reach out for treatment. This
is in no way saying that Narcan is the only way to deal with such a complex
problem; it's just another tool in a war to keep people who are using drugs
alive - a dead drug addict does not recover.

The population of drug users is one of the most marginalized groups in our
society today, and one of the largest contributors of our justice system.
As long as we continue to treat nonviolent drug users as criminals and not
treat them for their drug use, we will continue to put them into a system
that only hardens them.

Many of these new drug users who will be entering the prison system will be
the new generation of OxyContin users who are the sons and daughters of
more affluent families. Maybe then we will start to look at different
approaches in dealing with mandatory sentencing and cuts in drug treatment
programs that have been happening for years.

If we could only look in retrospect at the last 40 years of drug use, you
would see what a failure it is treating drug users in this way. We are
paying now for the approach that started a long time ago.

Look at the changing demographics of drug users - they're getting younger.
If one of your children was overdosing on the bathroom floor with only
seconds to live, would you be willing to inject them with Narcan? I know I
would at least want the opportunity to keep my child alive and remain
hopeful that someday he would recover from his drug use.

For those of us who are in the trenches working to provide other options,
we know drug abuse can't be legislated or arrested away. We can debate
about this as we have done with syringe access for the past 15 years, thus
allowing AIDS to get ingrained into a wider range of our society, even
though studies have shown that syringe access would have slowed the spread
of AIDS while not increasing crime or drug use.

Maybe it's time that we implement evidence-based and scientifically proven
methods and programs that will be effective in dealing with drug overdoses.