Heroin abuse is a public health issue | Letters

We can tackle it in the same way as tobacco smokingYour special report “Death by the sea: how drugs blighted our coastal towns”, News) raises once again the issue of the appalling death rates from heroin usage. I was struck by the statement that the Royal College of Physicians has declared that the problem must be seen as a public health rather than a criminal justice issue. As a (now retired) GP, and since the deaths in the 1980s of four young patients from heroin overdose in our small market town, I cry: “At last!”Most of us take mood-altering substances, whether alcohol, nicotine or heroin. They are all dangerous, but by treating, for example, tobacco as a public health problem, look at the impact on pubs, the workplace, public transport etc. Bringing heroin into the public health arena and out of the criminal justice system would have an immense impact on crimes related to drugs and prison populations and death rates, particularly among the young, would fall. Continue reading…
Via: Heroin abuse is a public health issue | Letters