Making decisions based on political considerations or gut feelings is likely to end up with us going round in circles. It's very dull to go to a clinic three times a day to get your injections. But international drug control bodies remain skeptical about heroin prescription. In March, the World Health Organization said its benefits were unproven and that trials could influence young people's attitudes to drug abuse, jeopardizing prevention efforts. International treaties commit more than 100 countries to prohibition, despite the almost universal belief that it has failed.
Drugs are perfect for that.
Watters, who has counseled thousands of addicts, is adamant that abstinence is the only answer. Those who stubbornly advocate an abstinence approach, he says, do not understand the complexity of addiction. But Watters believes lives cannot be repaired while people remain drug dependent. Three-quarters of those who dabble in the drug become hooked, dependent on it simply to feel normal. The key is to stop young people acquiring that craving in the first place.