XPost: aus.legal, uk.legal   
   From: sylvia@not.at.this.address   
      
   Dr. Sir John Howard, AC, WSCMoF wrote:   
   > Sylvia Else wrote:   
   >> ¦ Reality Check© ¦ wrote:   
   >>> German parliament OKs heroin prescription   
   >>>   
   >>> BERLIN-German lawmakers have voted to allow the prescription of   
   >>> synthetic heroin to long-term addicts who fail to respond to other   
   >>> treatments.   
   >>> The lower house of parliament approved the measure Thursday.   
   >>>   
   >>> It would apply only to people aged at least 23 who have been addicted   
   >>> for at least five years and undergone two previous, unsuccessful   
   >>> rehabilitation programs.   
   >>>   
   >>> A cross-party group of supporters says pilot programs in seven German   
   >>> cities found that controlled prescription of synthetic heroin, or   
   >>> diamorphine, at approved facilities helped addicts who failed to   
   >>> respond to treatment with methadone.   
   >>>   
   >>> Neighboring Switzerland has long had similar programs. They have been   
   >>> credited with reducing drug-related crime and improving addicts' health.   
   >>   
   >> If only our legislators could show the same degree of sanity, rather   
   >> than sticking with the notion that drug addicts are criminals   
   >> (because, of course, taking drugs is against the law).   
   >   
   > We can just give them bleach to inject instead. That should have the   
   > desired side effect of reducing the crime rate too.   
   >   
      
   No it wouldn't, because the fact that people going for the official   
   treatment tend to die would soon become widely known, and the   
   effectiveness thus destroyed.   
      
   By contrast, giving them the real deal means they don't have to steal to   
   finance their habit. Also, people receiving measured doses of   
   pharmaceutically pure heroin are much more likely to be able to obtain   
   gainful employment.   
      
   Getting hooked on heroin is foolish, but it's not the drug itself that's   
   life destroying - it's the situation that addicts find themselves in.   
      
   Sylvia.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)