EQUATING LIFE-SAVING WITH "CODDLING":

From Worcester, Mass., news of fierce opposition to a bill that would support expansion of a program to train "peers" to provide a narcotic antagonist, Narcan, to save lives in cases of overdose (Telegram and Gazette, 14 June). Such intervention has been documented as effective in saving lives, but opponents denounce it as "coddling" and "giving a false sense of hope" to drug users. Go figure!

LE PLUS CA CHANGE:

Twenty years later, more drugs, more need for methadone treatment On Jan. 24,1988, a NY Times headline read: “Twin Evils Spur Methadone Clinics” in Connecticut. On July 6, 2008, Vindy.com (Youngstown) headlined, “Opiate addiction grows; methadone clinics expand.” A compounding problem referred to in 1988 was HIV/AIDS; in 2008, it was oxycodone. Both articles refer to cheaper, purer and more plentiful heroin (the 2008 story says it’s “cheaper to buy heroin than to buy a pack of cigarettes”). In 1988 it was noted that heroin was no longer a big-city problem: “…it’s in our suburbs. It’s available anywhere.” Twenty years later, in the Ohio-Pennsylvania border region, methadone clinics are said to be “dotting suburbia.”