THE MIDDLE WAY TO TACKLE DRUG PROBLEM

AT LAST a proposal that attempts seriously to tackle the drug problem
(Q: How do we win the war on drugs? A: By making them legal --
November 29). Jack Cole will, of course, be roundly condemned for
failing to address the addiction problem. His experience, however, and
my own, coming from the child-care perspective, is that the collateral
damage, the effect on families, society, the criminal justice system,
the prison service, is a good deal worse than the isolated effect of
the addiction.

Addicts can function fairly well in society. It is the imperative to
get money to feed the habit from criminal sources and the
unreliability of these products that causes the life of the addict to
be so chaotic. I would suggest there is a solution intermediate
between criminalisation and Cole's proposal of legalisation. This is
medicalisation.

By medicalising the drug problem, society can get a handle on the
situation. Registered addicts would be provided with the materials for
their "treatment" in "shooting galleries" under medical and nursing
supervision.

They and their families, particularly the very vulnerable children,
would be known to the workers and a degree of holistic care could be
offered. Where possible, they could be pointed towards addiction
treatment services, but this would not be the prime purpose of the
exercise.

Street drugs would remain illegal, but the market would disappear. For
a time, dealers would try to capture a fresh clientele, but this would
hopefully be insufficient to sustain the industry at its current level.

This would not, of course be cheap, but would be considerably less
costly, in both financial and human terms, than the current social and
criminal costs.

DR CAMERON SHEPHERD

Bearsden