TOUGH CHALLENGE ON DRUGS

In an otherwise excellent leader (July 4), you claim that "legalisation
would increase addiction, offer fewer incentives to stop taking drugs, and
multiply the damage that is already being wreaked". In fact much of the
evidence points to the opposite. First, most drug misuse is related to
social deprivation. Legalisation doesn't increase addiction; poverty does.
In the Netherlands the average age of heroin users has risen to almost 40
and rises yearly. In the UK it is 26 and falling.

Second, the main incentive to stop misusing drugs is the desire to lead a
lifestyle that precludes being stoned.

Third, the problem of drugs is compounded by their illegality: criminal
behaviour to support a habit, demonisation of users and dealers, turf wars
and the destruction of inner-city communities.

Prohibition provides a smokescreen that we can hide behind or remove. It is
no coincidence that the UK has the biggest income gap and the highest
levels of drug misuse in Europe.

Perhaps the social exclusion unit would like to comment on the government's
failure to initiate a substantive debate on drug law reform.

Danny Kushlick Director, Transform

Sir Keith Morris's personal knowledge of the deteriorating situation in
Colombia merits respect (This war is unwinnable, July 4). But ending the
prohibition of dangerous drugs is not the answer, either to the UK's drug
problem or to the armed conflict in Colombia. And mixing up his proposal
with the debate about policing cannabis is disingenuous.

The international community can support Colombia by helping to build up the
capacity of the state to enforce the rule of law, by promoting human rights
and ending the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, and by
supporting viable alternatives to coca crops.

This is a tough challenge, but preferable both to the US-backed Plan
Colombia and to the call to legalise those hard drugs which would poison
millions.
Paul Goggins MP