Bruce Anderson

In the following viewpoint Bruce Anderson asserts that when it was legal to prescribe heroin in Britain, there were few heroin addicts; they received their heroin supply from their doctors and did not have to resort to crime to finance their addictions. When Britain submitted to pressure to make heroin illegal, heroin addicts were forced to get their drug from other sources, and thus began the black market for heroin and the attendant crime. Anderson argues that heroin should once again be legalized. Illegal heroin has no guarantee of quality and can seriously damage or even kill the addict. Heroin is also the major cause of drug-related crime; if heroin is legal, crime rates will fall, Anderson contends. Anderson is the former editor at large and political editor for the Spectator, a British weekly magazine.

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