Letters to the Editor

Paging Jame Gumb

Kim Johnson and Virginia Smith are as guilty as the poachers who kill these endangered animals, maybe even guiltier, since they are busy creating a market for the poacher's ill-gotten wares [News, "Tusk Luck," Rod Wilson, Oct. 19, 2006]. Far from deserving sympathy, they deserve to be thrown in prison. Or even better, maybe we could make necklaces out of their teeth and masks out of their skin and hair.

George Mostoller
Bella Vista

They should serve jail time and then some. I hope they are an example of what may be if you don't respect the right for all animals to live without harm.

Jennifer Iannaco
Philadelphia

Answer: Tobacco Is Legal and Doesn't Kill Too Many Teenagers

Why do heroin and other illegal-drug deaths often make the front page [Cover, "Horse Country," David S. Barry, Oct. 19, 2006], while deaths caused by tobacco rarely get mentioned even in the obituary notices? Our annual tobacco-versus-all-illegal-drugs-combined kill ratio is about 23.5 to 1. And the vast majority of our 17,000 deaths from illegal drugs are because the drugs are illegal. Because certain (politically selected) drugs like heroin are illegal, they are of unknown quality, unknown purity and unknown potency — just like alcohol was when it was illegal.

Kirk Muse
Mesa, Ariz.

Because heroin is sold via an unregulated illicit market, its quality and purity fluctuate tremendously. A user accustomed to low-quality heroin who unknowingly uses pure heroin will likely overdose. The inevitable tough-on-drugs reaction to overdose deaths is a threat to public safety. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

While the U.S. remains committed to moralistic drug policies modeled after America's disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition, Europe has largely abandoned the drug war in favor of harm reduction alternatives. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce drug-related disease, death and crime among chronic users. Addicts would not be sharing needles if not for zero-tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes, nor would they be committing crimes if not for artificially inflated black-market prices.

Providing chronic addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with illicit heroin use. Heroin maintenance pilot projects are underway in Canada, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction. Putting public health before politics may send the wrong message to children, but I like to think the children are more important than the message.

Robert Sharpe
Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy

Following LEEDs

I agree that what this city needs is to mandate environmentally sound "design and build" practices into code. Our future depends on it [Loose Canon, "LEED or Follow," Bruce Schimmel, Oct. 12, 2006]. Each developer has an awesome opportunity, choice and responsibility to build in a socially and eco-sensitive way, break old habits, introduce innovative forward thinking and prove by example what is attainable. That is a true measure of success.

It looks as if the five developers in your article have fallen gravely on this opportunity. They are proud of the "goodies" packed into their condos but fail to recognize and mitigate the larger-scale environmental impact. Concerns over additional cost and incentives are valid but solutions exist. It's time to stop perpetuating "dirty" standards and choose to jump aboard as pioneers! To add optimism, there are a growing number of owners, developers and builders in and around Philadelphia who are successfully integrating "green" design and build strategies into their projects. The Delaware Valley Green Building Council (www.dvgbc.org) is focused on turning this beautiful city into the country's top sustainable city. The industry is responding and shifting its priority through education and community awareness. Now what's left is political priority.

Ari Barkan
Fairmount