NO, WE MUST KEEP UP THE BARRIERS

PAUL DRURY (Letters, February 12), has defeated his own argument by
admitting that nearly 50 years ago it was the addictive nature of heroin and
cocaine that allowed only an extremely limited use. Guess what? It was
primarily this very addictive nature of these drugs that caused countries
subsequently to prohibit them. At least prohibition has protected 99 per
cent of our community from that very addiction, and even in those
proportions the illicit-drug problem is most disturbing. I ask the community
to imagine the horror of the situation if the projected percentage fell to
even 97 per cent. The anti-prohibition argument is similar to saying that
the building of a levee in a time of flood is responsible for the small
amount of levee overflow.

No sensible person would accept this as a reason not to build a levee in the
first place and heighten it as required.

COLLIS PARRETT Convener Make Illicit Drugs Socially Unacceptable (MIDSU)