Drug laws in Taiwan have come a long way since the draconian era of martial law. Today, offenders are given at least two chances to mend their ways by first serving time in rehab centers that are adjoined to prisons, but not technically part of the hard-time prison system. Currently, TV personality Hu Gua and his girlfriend Ting Jou-an are just over a month into their stay at such a rehab center, which a judge ordered after police found marijuana in their house while on an unrelated search operation. Other famous entertainers are also currently serving time or have recently been released from jail-rehab.

If two 50 to 60-day stints fail to break bad habits, recidivist offenders can be sentenced to at least a year in general population in an official prison. Many of those released last week fall into this category of “dedicated” addict, and for many of these convicts, heroin is the demon of choice.

It is easy to take a “serves-you-right” attitude when addicts suffer for their sins. Society often holds a “three-strikes and you’re out” view of addiction, and is unwilling to grant more chances to people seen as incorrigible. While dealing with addicts is time-consuming and frustrating, compassion is indeed a virtue in these difficult situations.

Understanding heroin is essential to making progress against it. Unlike so-called “soft drugs” like marijuana, the potential for addiction with heroin is massive. For some, just a few doses are enough to begin a walk down a life-long path of dependence.

On August 10, 1897, German researcher Felix Hoffmann successfully found a way to use a hitherto unstable drug for medical applications. German pharmaceutical giant Bayer called Hoffmann’s new drug Aspirin. Eleven days after Aspirin, Hoffman invented heroin, which according to Wikipedia.org, got its name from the German word for “hero” due to test subjects claiming they felt “heroic” while on the narcotic. For years Bayer marketed the drug as non-addictive, even putting it in children’s cough medicines. The company discontinued using heroin in medicines in 1910 and admitted the strong potential for addiction, but by then Pandora’s Box had been opened.

Today, there appears to be only two effective paths governments can choose in the fight against drug abuse. The first is education and the second is harm-reduction. Drug education in Taiwan has focused mostly on the moral reasons for rejecting illegal drugs. In other words — don’t do it because it’s bad. This moralistic logic, however, is not persuasive enough for many. The other tool in Taiwan’s anti-drug arsenal is fear of punishment. Nightly newscasts are filled with shame-faced, handcuffed offenders on their way to jails. Again, such methods are not effective for many.

Taiwan must amp up its anti-drug education efforts. In the U.S., a series of before-and-after pictures of methamphetamine users are displayed in some schools’ anti-drug textbooks. The horrible physical changes addicts undergo are shocking, and help to counterweigh any misguided idea that drugs are “fun.” This in-your-face approach has helped to drastically reduce the level of hard-drug use in this age demographic.

As the saying goes, “Seeing is believing.”

The other governmental effort must be in the area of harm-reduction. Unfortunately, some addicts will never get better and will spend their short lives either in jail or intoxicated by their poison. But instead of long-term incarceration, perhaps it’s time to register such people as “official addicts” and begin to plot a course that will help both society and the victim of addiction. Methadone, taken orally once a day, suppresses narcotic withdrawal for between 24 and 36 hours, and is effective in eliminating withdrawal symptoms in cases of addiction to heroin. Taiwan should begin offering methadone under the National Health Insurance plan, as such programs have proved very helpful in Europe and Australia.

Dealing with repeat drug offenders is frustrating. Addicts will lie, cheat or steal to fund their desire. But society must not forget that addicts are human beings who suffer from a serious disease. Yes, they may have brought it upon themselves and they are responsible for their decisions, but compassion is a defining marker of the caliber of a society. Do we scorn those who get lung cancer due to years of smoking or deny treatment to obese individuals who eat too much? Only by focusing first on educating young people with the facts about drugs and then following up with harm-prevention programs for genuine addicts can we begin to make a dent in this war —-and maybe save some lives.

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