Pubdate: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 Source: Canberra Times (Australia) Contact: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/ Author: C. P. Killick-Moran HIGH COST DOES NOT DETER DRUG-USERS WAYNE SIEVERS puts forward a disturbingly close-to-the-bone argument with his letter (CT, March 8) on the relationship between prohibition and the cost of heroin. Each and every comment is correct but I must ask Mr Sievers, is his own sobriety a function of the prohibitive costs of purchasing heroin under black-market conditions? I myself have chosen to avoid heroin after watching dear friends battle with, and mostly lose against, the addiction of opiates. I found the prospect of death a prohibitive cost: for those not deterred by that prospect I am afraid that purely financial considerations simply don't enter into the equation. Expensive heroin kills as many lost souls as cheap heroin but cheap heroin does not profit black marketeers, insurance companies, weapons manufacturers and law-enforcement agencies. C. P. KILLICK-MORAN Scullin - --- MAP posted-by: Patrick Henry