SWEDISH MODEL SUCCESSFUL

Sir-David Round (March 4) and my other critics miss the point. Drugs, and
that includes marijuana, are bad for kids. So bad that we must use all the
tools we have to stop kids taking them. That includes education, and
prohibition. Because prohibition is not 100 per cent effective it is not a
failure.

Prohibition works when it is sustained by a consistent social ethic of
parental, educational, and legal responsibility. It is difficult for it to
work in a climate of pervasive non-concern. That is what I mean by adult
complicity and the acceptance of illegality.

Data from the United Nations World Drug Report (1997) indicates that the
change from a liberal to prohibitive policy in Sweden has been effective in
reducing drug use among the young.

In Australia, where policy has been in reverse to that in Sweden over a
similar period, drug use has increased. Only 1.5 per cent of people under 20
are drug dependent, in Australia it is 8.2 per cent.

BRUCE LOGAN
March 9, 2000