SIR - Your leading article on drugs (March 30) was a breath of fresh
air on a subject which is rarely faced up to in a sensible way. The
Runciman committee's report opens the way to decriminalise drugs and
to put some much needed quality control into the product.

If this enlightened approach could be adopted internationally, the
benefit to the producer countries, normally the most impoverished in
the world, would be another big plus to add to the balance sheet.

These countries' very structures are often affected by the various
warring cartels, and the corruption you highlight in police fores such
as our won and that of the United States goes right to the very top of
government in areas such as these. On top of this they are subject to
covert action by anti-drugs agencies which in some cases amount to
mini-wars with much loss of life and limb.

I have never taken drugs but can clearly see that prohibition has
failed and a new approach is called for.

A. A. Nash,
Billericay, Essex

Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n426/a11.html