Letters to the Editor

To the Editor: A Feb. 10 news story reports that advisers to the City of New York and its Mayor have urged that the amount of amphetamines produced in the United States be reduced. As a member of the advisory committee I should like to register a minority report.

The reduction of legal production of this material will not prevent anyone from using amphetamines. People who are prone to use “speed,” as it is called in the streets, will continue to do so. The difference will be that they obtain it from illicit sources, and instead of being a pure drug It will be as contaminated as the heroin they sometimes shoot into their veins. These contaminated materials are frequently infectious, causing abscesses of the heart, brain, kidney and particularly the liver. Tetanus among such patients is fairly common and often fatal.

Also, when the material can no longer be obtained for a pittance from its present sources, the addict will have to turn to the black market. The price will rise and the number of crimes committed in order to purchase the drug can only increase.

These are not possibilities; they are certainties. It has happened in any country that has tried to cure its addiction problems by making the drug scarce. There was practically no criminal addiction in the United States prior to the passage of our restrictive legislation. We have made this mistake ever since 1914 with the passage of the Harrison Act.

It is a pity that we have not learned that one does not cure a serious medical, social and legal problem by prohibition. The only time we learned this bad lesson was when we repealed the Prohibition Amendment after twelve disastrous years.

HERBERT BERGER, Chairman, Committee on Narcotics of the Richmond County Medical Society Staten Island, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1972