AN IRRATIONAL VIEW OF DRUG THERAPY

How distressing to read that our national drug policy relies not on facts
but on misinformation and stigmatization. As someone who "gives out"
dangerous drugs to my patients every day, I know - and I think most
Americans also know - what unfortunately eludes the grasp of administration
policymakers like David Murray of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy (City & Region, Feb. 23).

Drugs - be it aspirin, marijuana, morphine, or MDMA (ecstasy) - are in and
of themselves morally neutral; it is the context of their use that matters.
To suggest that the American people - including the children we are trying
to protect from drug misuse - don't understand this is insulting and, more
important, counterproductive.

Furthermore, if Murray believes that doctors shouldn't use MDMA to help
dying cancer patients because young people will no longer think it is
dangerous, perhaps he should be consistent and have us stop using morphine
and Valium. Not only does a drug policy based on selective "stigmatization"
work to deny patients potential new therapies; it is irrational and
untenable. Just ask any teenager.

DAVID OXMAN, MD

Research fellow

Harvard Medical School

Boston