REMOVE DRUGS TABOO

Sir: Roger Houghton (letter, 24 August) advocates the decriminalisation of
drugs, if that "is most likely to minimise drug use". However, under such a
policy there would be no legal supply. This would give a boost to just
those illegal suppliers who are at work today.

Decriminalisation is precisely the form that alcohol prohibition took in
1920s America. It led then to the same problems that all-out prohibition
causes now - increased murder rate due to turf wars, increased deaths
because of impurities, widespread corruption and the diversion of law
enforcement assets away from real crimes.

The only sensible solution is legal supply. The form of supply could vary
depending on the substance involved - ranging from a free market for
cannabis to prescription only for heroin, for example.

Hugh Robertson
The Legalise Cannabis Alliance
Norwich