ALCOHOL DEATHS HIGHLIGHT RISKS OF LEGALIZING DRUGS

An international study last week estimated that in the year 2000 some
300,000 people around the world aged between 15 and 29 died from
substance abuse.

And it may come as a surprise to those who regard illegal drugs as
the paramount evil to learn that 85 per cent of those deaths were
related to alcohol.

Another report, by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, found that
social and economic costs associated with alcohol -- $7.4 billion in
2004 -- are twice as high as those connected to illicit drugs.

Many people argue that the "war on drugs" has failed, that
decriminalization of cannabis is overdue, and so on. There are
suggestions that regulating the sale of banned substances might help
to prevent their abuse.

But the truth is that booze -- legalized, regulated and socially
acceptable -- remains a huge problem.

We need to remind ourselves of this before advancing fancy schemes to
liberalize drug policy.