Fighting Heroin Needs New Approaches

Letters

After reading your article on heroin in our area and the vague promise of combating it, I was left to wonder: almost all heroin in this country is used by white people who find it cheaper than opioids. In this article, it's mostly about money to "fight the spread" of drugs in the area. Perhaps the post office can stop fentanyl coming in from China, perhaps not—or there will be other ways of getting it. 

When are the doctors who liberally write scripts for opioids going to be charged? Studies across the country have shown that prescriptions are written in such abundance that it works out to an average of hundreds of pills per person in the county or state. 

The entire country is under siege from this scourge but since it's a white epidemic, we are greeting it with Naloxone, rather than the prison sentences historically given to blacks. And what doctor has had his license revoked or been sent to jail for over-prescribing opioids? It's almost always the user who is guilty and seldom the distributor. 

Yes, we can use the federal funds, but the thinking has to change to stop this plague; jail or saving a life here and there are not the response we need.

Claire Morda, Sarasota.

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