Does it occur to our drugs tsar ("The new epidemic", May 26) that the
increase in drug use in the past five years might be directly caused
by the policies he espouses. By outlawing recreational drug users, he
pushes them into the social ghetto of other users and suppliers,
thereby ensuring the establishment of a drugs subculture beyond the
reach of normal peer exchange. By insisting that supplies can only be
obtained from illegal and therefore ungovernable sources, he
guarantees the impurity and inconsistencies in strength that are the
real cause of most drug-related illness and fatalities.

By refusing to consider regulating supplies on prescription, he pushes
users firmly into a cycle of need that in most cases can only be
satisfied by resorting to crime, with all the costs and misery that
entails for all of us. And worst of all, by keeping market prices high
and supplies insecure, he provides the perfect incentive for drug
suppliers to take big risks in return for high profits. If I were a
drugs dealer, I would be pumping large sums of money into the
anti-drugs campaigns, as the surest investment I could make in the
future of my business.

Name and address supplied