LAST Friday your paper reported record levels of burglaries and 18
armed robberies since the beginning of June - "police linked many of
the incidents with possible drug use" ("AFP calls for help in wave of
crime", 30 July, p.5). The same morning a firm rang to offer us a free
security survey of our house. On Saturday you quoted Neighbourhood
Watch chairman Len Gibson as saying that rates of burglaries,
vandalism and petty crime had doubled in less than a year in his own
area of Belconnen ("Calls to revive suburban crime watch", 31 July,
p.3). Focus groups of NRMA policy holders have placed at the top of
their concerns property crime committed by those feeding their
addiction (Sun Herald, 9 May, p.11). The Prime Minister has told us
drugs account for up to 80 per cent of property offences.

Swiss police records reveal a reduction close to 70 per cent in crime
by those on the heroin-prescription program of that country, and that
this reduction can be expected in just six months.

Why do we put up with rising crime when we know how to reduce it by
so much so quickly?

W. M. BUSH
Turner