0 ... OPINION r ige 4 Friday, April 2, 1982 The Michigan Daily -' * -. 4 .r" 14 * 4 t A 0 Heroin: Separating fact from fiction v By David Stewart f 4 :1eroin- :To be a confirmed drug addict is to be one of Oie walking dead ... The teeth have rotted out, dli'appetite is lost, and the stomach and in- Wstanes don't function properly. . . Eyes and sin turn a bilious yellow-. in some cases mem- branes of the nose turn a flaming "ed ... Oxygen in the blood decreases; bron- fi4tis and tuberculosis scars remain . .. Ner- yes snap; vicious twitching develops ... Fan- tastic fears blight the mind and sometimes Complete insanity results. Often times, too, dleath comes-much too early in life... Such is the torment of being a drug addict ... one of the .walking dead." - THAT IS WHAT the Supreme Court said in 1i62. And judging from the talks I have had With many people, the words almost perfectly epitomize the public conception of the effects of heroin and the physiological and mental states of Heroin users. Thus I have found an almost foolproof way of getting people to see me not as a mild, serious, and upright person, but as ethically bankrupt - a veritable moral monster. All I have to do is to advocateethe complete legalization of heroin. Since everyone knows that the Supreme Court got the facts right, it is manifest that heroin should be strictly illegal and that those who disagree must be irrespon- sible misanthropes. Yet, why, after all, should heroin be illegal? I have encountered a few general reasons: Heroin should be illegal because it is an ex- tremely dangerous drug, because it causes grave mental damage, because it is an integral part of our crime problems. YET HEROIN'S popular image is unsuppor- ted by scientific evidence. It rests on a mass of erroneous beliefs and fallacies that have gained credence not because of any intellec- tual virtues, but because of incessant repetition and their value as sensation. (It is supported by moral, not medical, horror. This is the true nature of the feeling of most people at the mere thought of heroin.) What are the actual effects of heroin itself? I once told a newspaper editor that heroin is almost completely harmless; he said that I would surprise a lot of doctors with that statement. He was probably wrong. Medical knowledge about heroin and other opiates often contradic- ts groundless popular beliefs. LET'S SURVEY what doctors have found about the true effects of heroin: 0 "The study shows that morphine addiction is not characterized by physical deterioration or impairment of physical fitness aside from the addiction per se. There is no evidence of change in the circulatory, hepatic, renal, or endocrine functions." (Dr. A. B. Light, Ar- chives of Internal Medicine, 1929). (Morphine is the primary active constituent in opium. Heroin is a morphine derivative, about two to four times as potent as morphine. It is converted back into morphine in the body, and the only difference in effect is in the potency); - "To our surprise we have not been able to locate even one scientific study on the proved harmful effects of addiction. . . We have assembled over 500 documents. . . but not one of them offers a . . . scientifically valid statement on this problem. . . There was no real evidence of brain damage or other serious organic disease resulting from the continued use of narcotics." -(Dr. George Stevenson, "Drug Addiction in British Columbia: A Research Survey," 1956); " "Cigarette smoking is unquestionably more damaging to the human body than heroin." (Dr. Vincent Dole,. personal letter to E. Brecher, 1967); and " "The addict who is able to obtain an adequate supply (of heroin or other opiates) through legitimate channels . . . usually dresses properly, maintains his nutrition, and is able to discharge his social and occupational obligations with reasonable efficiency. He usually remains in good health, suffers little, and is, in general, difficult to distinguish from other persons." (Dr. Jerome Jaffe, The Phar- macological Basis of Therapeutics, 1980). Systematic research, then, has never suppor- ted the high court's popular image of heroin. The health hazards of heroin do not result from heroin per se. But the archetypical "heroin fiend" does not get the drug itself. And here is the basis for the court's description of addicts, which does fit many users of heroin-but not because they use heroin. THE TYPICAL urban addict gets a con- pound that contains perhaps three to five per- cent heroin. All kinds of problems can be traced back to this fact - consider the other 95 to 97 percent of the compound. That the bulk of what is sold is not heroin par- tly accounts for the fact that users in- ject-mainline-the drug. When relatively cleanwnd pure, opiates are usually taken orally or by inhalation, often in cigarettes or pipes (though even mainlining is not that dangerous, so long as the syringe is sterile-as with diabetics). This 95 to 97 percent is made up of things like sugar, quinine, talc, strychnine, and battery acid. These other substances found in street junk are often more dangerous than any drug. And they account for most, if not all, of the deaths too loosely but routinely called over- doses. HEROIN IS CUT because it is illegal, and thus not subject to any quality controls. Cutting the drug leads to bigger takes for all the mid- dlemen and dealers along the line from poppy to street. The result is a compound that hasy very little heroin and sells for an incredible price. An addict may have to spend from $50 to $150 a day to supply his habit. And while cutting a drug on the free market would lead to lawsuits against a legal drug manufacturer, on the black market cutting will hardly lead to consumer complaints or lawsuits. An addict is in no position to shop around or prosecute for fraud. We find, then, that the pseudo-medical four r' dations of heroin prohibition are untenable. Prohibition reduces the quality and drasticall. increases the price of the drug-and is thereb the basic cause of both the health hazards an the crime related to heroin use. Even if the drug did cause its users harm, the case for prohibition would be very weak in a, liberal society-alcohol is a very dangerous drug, too (in fact, much more dangerous than; heroin). But since it does not, in itself, caus' harm, and in view of the other negative and concomitant consequences of prohibition, the only solution to the "heroin problem" is to erase it at its root - by legalizing heroin. The second part of this article will ap , pear in tomorrow's Opinion Page. Stewart, a freelance writer, graduated from the University in 1981. 0 0 0 r 4, E1je idtudnat haiviy Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Sinclair I S 'l WJAI F e r Vol. XCII, No. 144 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 q 6 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board An unbalanced amendment it .- i c w - - -'1ti S r RESIDENT REAGAN turned his; sympathy for a balanced budget amen- ent to the United States Constitution tito official approval Wednesday night. -The amendment, currently cir- eulating through the halls of Congress, *ould make it illegal for the federal jovernment to run a yearly budget deficit. It would also place a lid on the late at which the federal government pan grow, forbidding its expansion to exceed the pace of national income. Although the amendment is being jmblicized by its backers as the savior :91 our national economy, in reality it is dangerous and potentially disastrous kdncept. Practical experience should show 41iat the amendment is absurd. Putting Jegal limits on federal deficit spending ould result, in times of recession, in m~assive panic tax hikes or massive janic spending cuts, either of which Could spell disaster for our economy. : In addition, history should show our lawmakers that deficit spending is of- en necessary. If we had not been able ;o run a deficit during the Depression, p~r nation would have suffered even ;ore in those black years. The ecession of the early 1970s might have .gotten further out of hand without Washington's deficit spending. Federal money spent with a budget, 4eficit is fundamental for restoring an .economv suffering from a recession. The citizens of Michigan should well understand the dangers of this amen-. tdment. The massive cuts in state ser- vices suffered by Michigan residents would have been unnecessary if the state had not required its budget to balance on, a yearly basis. Gov. Milliken's request for an emergency tax hike is part of Michigan's balanced budget law, as are his numerous and massive executive order budget cuts. Michigan's legal halt on deficit spen- ding is a classic example of what hap- pens when a balanced budget is forced upon a recession. The most unfortunate thing about the federal amendment is that it is gaining congressional support. Along with Reagan's official announcement, the amendment has 60 sponsors in the Senate and 170 in the House. The Senate Judiciary Committee has already passed the measure,- and the issue will come up for debate in May. The House has been somewhat more cautious, mostly due to the efforts of liberal representatives, but action is forthcoming. IfrCongress passes the balanced budget amendment, it will then go the same route as the Equal Rights Amen- dment, requiring the ratification of 38 states before it becomes law. Reagan had previously withheld public support for the amendment because his own deficit - $91.5 billion for 1982 - was too embarrassing. It was thought that he understood the irrationality of such a proposal, but it now seems as if he doesn't. The president and conservative members of Congress, in an attempt to make up for their previous fiscal mismanagement, are unfortunately looking to the false prophet of the legally balanced budget. A balanced budget amendment, however, is not only unbalanced, it is a step toward fiscal disaster. TWRDI 1 7 - I ENERGY _ :n '" s ,;. x r . , l . 0 LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Saving money on costly Coursepacks" To the Daily: When it comes to buying texts for classes, instructors have no say in wh'ere students may buy them. We can choose the store that will sell books at the lowest prices and buy them back for the highest prices. This is true for practically all course material except coursepacks. We must buy required coursepacks at specific locations. We can't shop around for the copy center with Valuable trash the best quality and the lowest' price because someone else has already done this for us. After I spent almost $15 on a coursepack that is at times barely legible, I decided to check into the available options. I discovered the University has its own printing department and four central campus copy centers which are capable of printing coursepacks and selling them out of an office in the LSA building. The size of the printing depar- tment operation makes it more than adequate to handle the University's course material printing along with the 28 to 30 million copies it is already prin- ting each year. The printing department isn't in the cour- sepack business for profit. Buying a coursepack from them, therefore, would eliminate the middleman's mark-up and save students up to half of what we now pay. Instructors should understand the moneysituation most studen- ts are facing; instructors should check into all the alternatives open to them. Students should expect that their instructors are using the copy center that w.l print coursepacks with the best quality at the lowest price. -Pris Drew March 26 To the Daily: While supplies are dwindling' and demands increasing, it is ob- vious that we should all try to conserve our natural resources. Statistics show that given the same amount of energy: 12 aluminum cans may be produced from scrap while only one may be produced from raw materials; With copper, six times as much can be processed from scrap as from virgin copper; " With steel, lead, paper, rubber, and zinc, two to three times as much can be recycled as can be produced from basic materials. These facts illustrate that the garbage of yesterday is fast becoming one of our most valuable resources. Please con- serve now for tomorrow's sake. -David Larson Ann Arbor Ecology Center April 1 4 Letters and columns represent the opinions of individual author(s) and do not necessarily reflect attitudes or beliefs of the Daily. th4 the 'i .. .. ... ...:..:. , :....;.. - }": .., rec.. 4 .< .': ..' ;":". ". ... :;..,.:......,}...}r.vx"::::"f.: :::"}::: M:::;:,"}} ..: 4v o ,: ". :...,,. 44: .,": .a fi".,4" .:.:? ". . ,"' : .. },. $. ,.:.p" ""::":,, $ ....":. 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