DRUG PROBLEM IS A MONSTER WE'VE CREATED FOR OURSELVES

R. MARTIN (Letters, Sunday Times, February 7) uses the technique of
concealing his main theme within a number of truisms in order to
persuade us that everything he says is true. When I was a child
cocaine was regularly used as an anaesthetic by dentists and I believe
heroin was regarded as a powerful but useful painkiller, though it was
not widely used because of its addictive potential.

The use of these drugs was not absolutely prohibited by legislation.
If there was a drug problem in those days, it certainly had nothing
like the dimensions of our current crisis.

So far from having "served its purpose'', prohibition has helped to
cause the increase in illicit drug taking to the level we have today
by conveying to many people the idea that because drugs are illegal
there must be something attractive about their use, and by making the
taking of drugs an act of rebellion for young people.

Criminals have used these effects of prohibition actively to promote
their wares to young people.

I suspect that the whole drug problem is a monster we have created for
ourselves by the simple policy of absolute prohibition and law
enforcement, rather than a more rational approach.

PAUL DRURY
Giralang