I met a doctor year before last who treats heroin patients. He described to me how most heroin addicts become so. It's a process of calculated betrayal.

An addict will use all their personal resources to buy heroin. When those are gone, they borrow, beg, and then steal all they can from their family and friends to buy heroin. When those resources are gone, then they steal wherever they can, and women prostitute themselves to buy heroin. To sustain their habit, many become dealers.

As a dealer they win recruits by inviting newcomers to parties where booze and lightweight drugs like pot are popular. Then they give mixes of light drug hits to newbies. Once the newbs have some heroin circulating in their systems, he gives them free doses of straight heroin. Then the new addict says, "hey, when can we party and get another hit?" That's when the parasitic host announces, "Oh, that's gonna' cost $100 a day now. No freebies."

The doctor had seen so many variations on this theme play out among his many patients. He told me this while he was awaiting a phone call that his addict daughter, who had been in and out of rehab three times, had finally died from her addiction.

Then and there I decided that a shoot on sight policy for heroin dealers would be too good a treatment.

Sg