Sir:
David Macauley states that the global drug business represents 8 per
cent of world trade ("the same as the oil business"), that it is
responsible for 70 per cent of thefts in the UK and, that it costs the NHS
a huge amount. He says the profits of the criminal drug business are so
great that serious bank robbery is in terminal decline, and yet he is
against the decriminalisation of drugs.

Why do the UK and US governments continue to ignore the lessons of US
alcohol prohibition between the wars?

-- GEORGE HORNBY, Bournemouth, Dorset