IF 73 per cent of suspected thieves are on heroin when arrested (Mail front page, April 1), crime can be cut by a similar percentage with a drug war rethink.
Attempts to limit the supply of drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of trafficking.
For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperat
e habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.
The pre-prohibition practice of prescribing heroin to existing addicts was standard in England from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Prescription heroin maintenance was effectively discontinued in 1971 in response to political pressure from the United States.
The loss of a controlled distribution system and subsequent creation of an unregulated black market allowed the number of heroin users to skyrocket.
Thanks to the success of the Switzerland's heroin maintenance programme, clinical maintenance is making a comeback.
Providing addicts with standardised doses in a clinical setting eliminates the health and public safety problems associated with illicit heroin use.
Heroin maintenance pilot projects have been initiated in Canada, 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 MPA,
Washington,
USA.
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