Pubdate: Sat, 04 Aug 2001
Source: Irish Independent (Ireland)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd
Contact:  http://www.independent.ie/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/213
Author:  Brendan O'Connor

THE LAW IS THE PROBLEM, NOT HEROIN

Brendan O'connor Says It's Time For Uncomfortable Choices On Hard Drugs Too

DRUGS kill and drugs destroy lives. For example, a heroin addict was jailed 
for three years last Wednesday for selling ecstasy to a teenager, Alison 
Davies, who died after taking it. Stephen "Mousey" O'Connor was condemned 
in court as "a drug pusher, dealing in death" and there is no doubt that he 
was in some way responsible for the teenager's death.

But Stephen O'Connor was not simply a dealer in death. Stephen O'Connor has 
been taking drugs since he was 14. He has been a heroin addict since he was 
16. As a heroin addict, O'Connor, like many other heroin addicts, was 
forced to buy off the street the drug to which he was addicted.

Heroin addiction is a full-time job, a pretty much constant quest for more. 
Users find it impossible to work and so are forced into a life of crime to 
feed their habit. O'Connor's habit has not only ruined his life but the 
life of Alison Davis. You have to wonder how different things could have 
been if O'Connor was given legally prescribed heroin. He might have been 
able to lead a normal worthwhile life, would possibly have been weaned off 
the drug by now. He would not be a criminal and he would not be, as the 
court put it, "dealing in death".

The idea of legally prescribed heroin is not a new one. Up until 1968 
doctors in Britain prescribed heroin to addicts. At that time there was 
practically no black market in heroin in Britain and about 500 heroin 
addicts. Now, with heroin available only on the black market, there are an 
estimated half a million heroin addicts in Britain. In Dublin, there are 
about 15,000 heroin addicts. Unlike those addicted to alcohol or 
cigarettes, heroin addicts are seen not as sick people or unfortunate 
victims, but largely as criminals.

The very act of buying and taking the drug to which they are addicted is a 
criminal act. So too are the things they have to do to feed the habit the 
theft, the prostitution, the drug-dealing. All these things are a direct 
result of the illegal nature of heroin. Time and time again, experimental 
programmes have shown that if these people had access to a supply of state 
regulated heroin they would have the capacity to lead normal lives and the 
crime rate would plummet.

But then how could the state be seen to distribute such a "dangerous" drug? 
Well, you may find this difficult to believe but pure heroin does very 
little psychological or physical damage. Like the crime we associate with 
heroin, the health risks of heroin are largely a result of its illegality.

Most infections arise largely from the sharing of dirty needles. Blood 
clots, abscesses and other infections are the result of impurities added to 
drugs by the criminals who control the market. When a heroin addict in 
Dublin injects heroin, he is also likely to be injecting sand, brickdust or 
even drain cleaner. A user who takes an overdose is likely to do so because 
it is impossible to gauge the purity of street heroin. No drug in history 
has been rendered safer by putting its supply into the hands of criminals.

Heroin itself is not really a harmful drug. Certainly it is highly 
addictive but apart from constipation and a little nausea in the early 
stages (common side effects of any strong painkiller) it causes very little 
physical harm.

INDEED if someone took double the recommended dose of paracetamol they 
would risk organ failure and possibly death. Someone taking double their 
dosage of pure heroin would suffer nothing more than a little drowsiness. 
Heroin, or diamorphine, does not harm any organs or tissues or cause any 
serious illness. You could say that it is the illegal nature of heroin that 
causes such damage to users and to society.

The quest for, and use of, illegal heroin causes people to lose their 
homes, their jobs, their families, their self-respect and ultimately their 
health. And while you may be uncomfortable with the idea of the State 
giving out heroin, bear in mind that the State already gives out methadone, 
a heroin replacement widely acknowledged to be more addictive than heroin 
and a drug that is often simply used in conjunction with heroin anyway.

A safe legal supply of heroin would cut out a huge amount of petty crime in 
this country, it would disable organised crime here, it would safeguard the 
health of heroin addicts and it would bring them into the bosom of the 
medical profession. We will look back and think it was barbarous that we 
condemned people, because of an illness born out of social deprivation, to 
living a life in the shadows, on the street because of the hypocrisy of a 
society where addictions of various kinds are, after all, endemic. The idea 
of the State giving out heroin is an uncomfortable one, but is it any more 
uncomfortable than casting heroin addicts aside, only noticing them when 
they impinge on our world by stealing our handbags or selling our children 
drugs? And uncomfortable as it is, decriminalised heroin is the only sane, 
compassionate response to the blights of addiction and crime.
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