Crown Point -- A top Lake County officeholder is calling for a national agency that would give certified addicts the drugs they crave so they do not patronize dealers on the streets.

Gerry Scheub, president of the Lake County Commissioners, said so-called "maintenance therapy," in which addicts are prescribed a legal fix, would cut the social cost of illegal drugs.

"If and when such a program is instituted, the illegal drug trade will effectively be eliminated," Scheub wrote in an open letter to state and federal elected officials. He released the letter Friday.

Since the Bush administration opposes the idea, it's unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Scheub is not the first Lake County official to espouse alternative views on combating illegal drug trafficking. In the 1970s, then-Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher led discussions of heroin maintenance as a means of addressing urban drug problems.

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