Pubdate: Sat, 24 Nov 2001 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Copyright: 2001 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper. Contact: http://www.sunspot.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37 Author: Tim Gardner, Robert Sharpe Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1914/a04.html SHORTAGE OF DRUGS ISN'T THE REASON FOR CITY'S RECENT VIOLENCE Thank you for the editorial stressing the need for appropriate treatment options for criminal drug addicts in Baltimore ("Spike in city killings linked to drug famine," Nov. 11). However, the premise in the title, that the recent rise in homicides is because of a scarcity of illegal drugs, is only very weakly supported. It doesn't make sense that all illegal drugs in the country were consumed in the few weeks between Sept. 11 and early October, which The Sun has identified as the beginning of our violent crime wave ("City police to redeploy officers," Nov. 7). I know that in my neighborhood the drug trade carries on, and anyone can still come to the street corner near my house and purchase a variety of illegal drugs. Violence begets violence, and local murders reflect the global culture of violence that the United States models. In continuing to cover our outrageous level of addiction, I hope The Sun will consider issues of war affecting our local community - such as behavioral manifestations of our culture of glorified violence; the installation of groups in power in Afghanistan committed to heroin production; and the reduction of money available for local drug treatment and prevention programs as our budget shifts to fund war. Tim Gardner Baltimore - --------------------------- HARM-REDUCTION MEASURES FIGHT DRUGS MORE EFFECTIVELY The drug war fuels crime and violence, while failing miserably to prevent use. Despite decades of zero tolerance, heroin use among high school seniors is at record levels ("Spike in city killings linked to drug famine," editorial, Nov. 11). But there are cost-effective alternatives. Switzerland's heroin maintenance trials, modeled after methadone maintenance programs pioneered in the United States, have shown such promise at reducing drug-related disease, death and crime that they are now being replicated in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. And providing chronic addicts with standard doses in a treatment setting can eliminate many of the problems associated with black market heroin use. If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance could deprive organized crime of its core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction. Harm-reduction policies have the potential to reduce the perils of both drug use and drug prohibition. Robert Sharpe, Washington The writer is an officer of the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk