Pubdate: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 Source: Eagle-Tribune, The (MA) Copyright: 2006 The Eagle-Tribune Contact: http://www.eagletribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/129 Author: Robert Sharpe, Policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) CONTROLLED HEROIN USE IS A BETTER SOLUTION To the editor: Regarding your Feb. 26 editorial on the opiate scourge: Switzerland's heroin maintenance trials have been shown to reduce drug-related disease, death and crime among chronic users. 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 black market prices. Providing chronic addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with heroin use. Heroin maintenance pilot projects are underway in Canada, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. If expanded, prescription maintenance would deprive organized 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman