The spread of heroin use in Waco [Page 1A, Aug.6] needs to
be addressed in the context of a failed national policy.
The Rand Corp. finds that a dollar spent on prevention and
treatment is seven times as effective as a dollar spent on
imprisoning nonviolent drug offenders and on totally failed
attempts to stop supply.

Yet two thirds of our money is spent on the least effective
strategies.

However many people have been helped by the billions spent,
we could have helped seven times as many by making better
choices.

When a clinic sold opiates to certified addicts in Shreveport
from 1919 to 1923, it eliminated the black-market, kept the drugs
away from children, reduced crime and much improved out-comes
for the addicts.

While people were sick and dying from black-market alcohol,
the clinic often allowed opiate addicts to take several days'
supply home and had no overdose deaths in four years.

Though strongly supported by citizens, judges, police and
the medical community, the clinic was forced to close by
federal "zero tolerance," and conditions returned in weeks
to the dismal ones we know today.

Switzerland, Germany, Australia and others are gradually
building on that model, but we are not.

Over and over, the fears roused by political rhetoric have
trampled on scientific analysis: policies intended to protect
children are in fact placing them at ever greater risk with each
year and stifling progress.

Jerry Epstein
Houston