"The Case for Medicalizing Heroin" by Alan Dershowitz is an absurd idea for so many reasons that this reader is infuriated. Dershowitz believes that forced treatment to addicts may eliminate some of the problems associated with this particular drug. He thinks that by giving addicts a daily fix without chance of overdose will, somehow, help them. He also believes that politicians will never legalize it simply because the idea is seen as being "soft on drugs" to their respective voters. Dershowitz also states his view that decriminalization will cause less of a black market and produce a dramatic difference in the number of people who become infected with AIDS virus because of the sharing of needles. Perhaps it would, however, heroin is an addictive narcotic that has as much of a right to be in hospitals as it does on the streets and Dershowitz commits many common fallacies trying to prove otherwise.

Dershowitz commits a non-sequitor fallacy in his argument by assuming that giving addicts their fix for the day is the best solution. Not only does he believe that it is the best solution, but he also believes that "we can neither eliminate heroin nor the demand for it." (Dershowitz 99)

Section 4.i of the Hippocratic Oath states, as translated by Ludwig Edelstein, "I will neither give a DEADLY drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect" (Hippocratic). Whether there is a chance for an overdose or not when the injection is given by a doctor, heroin has killed people, therefore making it a DEADLY drug. In the year 2000, Europe's National Program on Substance Abuse Deaths reported that 1,269 drug-related deaths occurred wherein 43% of them are said to be "heroin and morphine" related. Giving medical heroin to patients would be a direct violation of a sacred code promised by all doctors as an assurance to those of us that trust them. How are we supposed to put our trust in them knowing that they are, technically, drug dealers?

Why not start by first preventing the use of heroin? In all of my 20 years on this earth, the only anti-drug commercial that I can remember from childhood pertaining to the prevention of heroin usage was not even specifically designed against it. A jogger is running, at first appearing to be exercising. A police officer is then shown chasing him as the slogan reaches out to us, "Nobody ever says, 'I want to be a junkie when I grow up.'" The picture and the slogan paint an ambiguous picture of the definition of a junkie for our youth. Memory sometimes being what it is, I cannot be sure that more preventative measures were not taking place, but the key of anti-drug propaganda is to burn the images into the minds of the impressionable. If the slogans will not catch on, find another way. Educate our children first before they ne

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Approximate Word count = 1090
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)