On Sun, 28 May 2006 17:39:17 -0400 info at pulpculture.org writes:
> an attorney speaking about the drugs-treatment-transition boondoggle:
>
>
> http://thesinkingfeeling.blogspot.com/2006/05/funding-hell.html
>
> <...>
>
> I'll say at the outset that there are good treatments for addiction
> out
> there. They save lives, many lives, have saved some lives that I'm
> particularly fond of. I'm not hostile towards the addictions
> industry per
> se, though it is an industry, and one that has direct and violent
> consequences when it goes bad. I had a re-education in that this
> week, over
> lunch with a former colleague.
>
> My friend deals primarily in working inmates out of the system,
> through
> transitional living, post-incarceration employment and housing, and,
> of
> course, addictions treatment. Most of the inmates that my friend
> works with
> are on methadone. Oh,
>
<http://www.opiates.com/opiates/methadone-addiction-detox.html>methadone.
In other words, they replace an addiction to an illegal drug with an addiction to one that is legal. It seems to me that it would be simpler and better to simply legalize heroin and require that addicts in exchange for getting their fixes legally and cheaply, to stay under some sort of medical supervision.