Heroin addiction

Press, 29 July 1978, Page 14

Heroin addiction

Sir, — Without wishing to diminish the gravity of the heroin addict’s problems, I would take issue with a few points in the otherwise excellent article of July 19, by Felicity Price. The statement: “Only two in 10,000 are likely to survive” has no meaning without reference to time. “Few people who use it regularly will live more than five to seven years”; and, “The ultimate recovery rate for addicts has been put as low as 0.02 per cent,” are whose figures? Could I refer to the British Medical Journal of May 6, 1978, p. 1190. In Britain, 128 addicts were followed for seven years. Only 15 (12 per cent) had died, 33 had not taken opiates for two years. These were people attending drug dependence clinics in 1969, and may not apply to the United States of course. — Yours, etc.. PETER MILLER. July 24. 1978.

[Felicity Price comments: “The statistics and statements made in the article were mainly gleaned from interviews I had in March last year for a series of articles on heroin addicts and the lack of facilities in the South Island to help those sentenced to imprisonment. The interviews were with five Christchurch psychologists who had all met drug addiction in their work. Some of the statistics in the article came from police sources, including the Director of Crime (Detective Chief Superintendent M. T. Churches). Most of the statistics, however, were based on studies made in the United States.”]