PRESCRIPTION HEROIN REDUCES DISEASE, DEATH

Dear Editor,

Re: Junkie's blues (News Views, June 5).

Tom Fletcher ridicules the notion that childhood violence and sexual abuse
drives some drug users to engage in self-destructive behavior. He
sarcastically suggests "the nanny state should take over, replacing those
big nasty cops with tax-funded legal drug dealers." Replacing the punitive
nanny state otherwise known as the drug war with harm reduction isn't
necessarily a bad idea. Consider the experience of Canada's southern
neighbor, the former land of the free and current record holder in citizens
incarcerated.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control researchers estimate that 57% of AIDS
cases among women and 36% of AIDS cases overall in the U.S. are linked to
injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs. This easily
preventable public health crisis is a direct result of zero tolerance
policies that restrict access to clean syringes. Can Canada afford to
emulate the tough-on-drugs approach of the United States? Europe provides
much better role models.

Switzerland's heroin maintenance trials have been shown to reduce
drug-related disease, death and crime. They are currently being replicated
in Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. Providing chronic addicts with
standardized doses in a treatment setting eliminates much of the problems
associated with heroin use. 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 illicit market prices.

If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime
of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking
unprofitable and spare future generations addiction. Harm reduction
interventions have the potential to reduce the perils of both drug use and
drug prohibition.

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

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control webpage the verifies extent of IDU/HIV
problem: www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/idu.htm. More information is also
available on our website: www.drugpolicy.org.

Robert Sharpe

Drug Policy Alliance

Washington D.C.