SentLTE-Digest Thursday, November 17 2011 Volume 11 : Number 062
001 LTE: 'Getting A Fix' and 14 Nov letter
From: John Chase <>
002 LTE: Re: 'Legalizing drugs'
From: Kirk Muse <>
003 LTE: Re: 'Current system is not working'
From: Kirk Muse <>
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Subj: 001 LTE: 'Getting A Fix' and 14 Nov letter
From: John Chase <>
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:55:52 -0800
Editors, The New Yorker -
Lauren Davies' letter in the 14 Nov issue, responding to Michael
Spectors' 17 Oct article "Getting A Fix", mentions Vancouver's 'Insite'
program as a middle ground between punishment and rehabilitation. There
is another middle, but very different, ground that has been running
longer that either Portugal's or Vancouver's. It began in 1994 in
Switzerland as an experiment, borne for the same reason as Portugal's:
desperation. Bern, and especially Zurich, were trying to cope with an
epidemic of opiate addiction and AIDS caused by IV drug use. (We
Americans knew of Zurich's notorious Platspitz, aka "needle park".).
Ruth Dreifuss, the former President and Minister of Home Affairs,
persuaded the police and the medical community to agree on an
experiment. They started in 1993 by closing Zurich's "needle park" to
drug users and letting hard-core addicts register with the state to
obtain clean heroin. They also offered methadone maintenance, counseling
and, if requested, treatment to abstinence. In the latter 1990s it
became known as heroin assisted treatment(HAT) and spread throughout
Switzerland. It pays for itself in improved public health and safety,
and it enables addicts to hold jobs and pay taxes.In a 1999 referendum
the Swiss voted to extend the program ten years, and in 2008 they voted
over 2 to 1 to make it a permanent part of their national health system.
While buprenorphine, codeine and (especially) methadone are used as
maintenance drugs, heroin is available to the seven percent for whom the
others are ineffective. The average age at registration is slowly
rising, an indication that kids are not becoming addicted, and the
number of patients needing heroin has stabilized at about 1300. Use of
drugs other than opiates has either declined or stayed the same. As
perspective, in a country of almost eight million, HAT patients have
stabilized at about 1300, about seven percent of the total on opiate
maintenance. The ultimate goal of treatment is, of course, abstinence,
but most settle for methadone. The very few, the 1300, have been
addicted so deeply for so long that abstinence is not a realistic goal.
The key to success was to de-politicize the issue and involve both law
enforcement and the medical community from the beginning.
John Chase
727 787 3085 day or night
1620 E Dorchester Dr
Palm Harbor, FL 34684
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Subj: 002 LTE: Re: 'Legalizing drugs'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:17:36 -0800
To the Editor of The Pilot:
Thanks for publishing Richard Page's thoughtful letter: "Legalizing drugs"
(11-16-11). I am sure that many will claim that legalizing our now illegal
drugs will increase drug usage. I submit that it will not.
Before marijuana was criminalized via the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, the
Commissioner of Narcotics Harry Anslinger testified before the U. S.
Congress that the United States had a total of 100,000 marijuana users.
Now the U. S. government estimates that at least 107 million Americans
have used marijuana.
People, especially children, want what they are told they cannot have.
The lure of the "forbidden fruit" is very powerful.
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
Source: www.drugwarfacts.org
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Subj: 003 LTE: Re: 'Current system is not working'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:42:01 -0800
To the Editor of The Seattle Times:
Thanks for publishing Robert Sharpe's outstanding letter: "Current
system is not working" (11-16-11).
I am sure that many will claim that legalizing marijuana
will increase marijuana usage. I submit that it will not.
Before marijuana was criminalized via the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, the
Commissioner of Narcotics Harry Anslinger testified before the U. S.
Congress that the United States had a total of 100,000 marijuana users.
Now the U. S. government estimates that at least 107 million Americans
have used marijuana.
People, especially children, want what they are told they cannot have.
The lure of the "forbidden fruit" is very powerful.
To find out why marijuana was first criminalized I suggest that the
readers Google: "Harry J. Anslinger quotes."
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
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End of SentLTE-Digest V11 #62
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