TALIBAN THE WINNER IN WAR ON DRUGS

Seventy per cent of the world's heroin is created from opium that is grown
in Afghanistan. That country has a stockpile large enough to supply every
addict in Europe for three years. The Taliban has slashed production in the
latest season by 95 per cent in a spirit of UN co-operation, but there is
still the stockpile, and that co-operation is not likely to continue.
(Source: The Economist, October 20, 2001.)

The point is that, if heroin use were legal, its price would plummet and
the Taliban's income would be dramatically eroded. The cost of such a
measure may be an increase in heroin use, which should be seen as an
individual's right to choose. At least the purity of heroin would be better
controlled.

Legalisation of heroin would undermine the ability of the Taliban to
continue an oppressive regime without the support of a productive economy.

Put simply, if America (and other countries) discontinued the "war on
drugs", the war on terrorism could be a lot more straightforward.

Gavin Sinclair, Glebe, October 22.