HEROIN TRIALS WORKING

The reported increase in heroin use in South Africa is cause for alarm.

The inevitable tough-on-drugs response is a very real threat to public
safety. Attempts to limit the supply of drugs while demand remains constant
only increases the profitability of drug trafficking.

In terms of addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads
desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits.

The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

Switzerland's heroin maintenance trials have been shown to reduce
drug-related disease, death and crime.

Addicts would not be sharing needles if not for zero-tolerance laws that
restrict access to clean syringes, nor would they be committing crimes if
not for artificially inflated black-market prices. Providing chronic
addicts with standardised doses in a clinical setting eliminates many
health and public safety problems associated with heroin use.

Heroin maintenance pilot projects are now under way in Germany, Spain and
the Netherlands. If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive
organised crime of a core client base.

This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future
generations addiction.

Putting public health before politics may send the wrong message to
children, but I like to think the children are more important than the message.

Robert Sharpe

Arlington, Virginia United States of America