DRUG ADDICTS AROUSE COMPASSION AND CONCERN

Letter writer Michael Theil must have put his knee out of joint when
he wrote that giving heroin to addicts "makes about as much sense as
providing free booze to alcoholics" (Drug-plan pessimism, Nov. 23).

Giving booze to alcoholics would make sense if alcohol were prohibited
and black market hooch of unknown potency and purity was killing
alcoholics by the thousands; if alcoholics were spreading deadly
communicable diseases; and if alcoholics, trying to raise money for
organized criminals, were responsible for most of our property crime.

Giving clean heroin to addicts in a clinical setting, with counselling
and health care, makes more sense than giving addicts our car stereos,
chasing them from one neighbourhood to the next and putting them in
overcrowded cages when we find enough overworked police officers to
catch them.

Matthew M. Elrod

Victoria