PROHIBITION JUST DOES NOT WORK

ONCE AGAIN I need to explain to Colliss Parrett (Letters, 18 February) the
facts about prohibition. He says that prohibition has protected 99 per cent
of our community. He seems to forget that cannabis is a prohibited drug and
has been used by 55 per cent of 17 year olds. If prohibition is the great
success that Colliss Parrett believes it to be, why then is it that our
Government does not prohibit the two most destructive yet legal drugs,
nicotine and alcohol?

As for his heartless comparison about the levee and its so called overflow,
in the real context of prohibition that overflow amounts to more than 600
deaths per year. This is the argument that prohibitionists use to support
their dogma: those who die are expendable in the cause of prohibition. That
is, ignore the deaths and tragedy, this is the best that we are prepared to
do.

But we must have better drug policies. There is no good reason to have a
dead child.

M. McCONNELL
Higgins