Letters to the Editor

FUTILE 'DRUGS WAR'

Sir: Having lost two young patients in the past month from the injecting of
a particularly pure form of heroin that appears to be currently available
on the streets of London, leaving behind an orphaned eight-year-old and
fatherless seven-year-old, I feel extremely angry

David Macauley's article explaining why he quit as the director of Scotland
Against Drugs (Comment, 4 September) said nothing new ("education has to be
at the forefront, availability must be reduced, must shift the culture"
etc) and quitting is not going to help.

We must get away from the "war on drugs" and get into the field of
"peaceful negotiation", as in Northern Ireland. Education has failed our
children, who are dying. Reducing availability has failed. Changing the
culture is a long-term goal, which might ultimately succeed.

We must listen to our youngsters who want desperately to get out of the
grip of heroin and other drugs but cannot, largely because of the
illegality of their action.

We must consider providing locally based, user-friendly, legal, controlled,
specialist outlets for these drugs so that young people can get and
administer their drugs in clinical and social safety. And then we must
provide the rehabilitation facilities in which they can be guided back into
society and in which they can be trained in the skills which will enable
them to make a positive contribution. This approach will immediately reduce
the crime rate, it will put the current providers out of business and it
will reduce the appalling mortality rates from drug use. For the sake of
our children and grandchildren, let's talk about it.

- -- Dr Nick Maurice, General Practitioner, Marlborough, Wiltshire

Sir: It is a good thing that David Macauley has resigned as director of
Scotland Against Drugs. He criticises the Government for being ineffective
in tackling the drugs problem, but the only positive suggestion he makes is
that "the availability of drugs on our streets must be drastically
reduced". He says, "Enforcement is key."

What on earth does this mean? Enforcement has never worked. It does not
work now and it never will. It is the only thing we have ever tried and the
demand for drugs has continued to escalate.

Mr Macauley is right to criticise the Government: they cannot succeed if
most of their effort is concentrated on enforcement and so little is spent
on helping those whose misuse of drugs causes problems to themselves and
society. Mr Macauley seems to be proposing that we waste further resources
in doing even more of the wrong things.

The only solution is to try to bring drugs under reasonable legal control.
When the criminals cease to have a monopoly over the supply and
distribution of drugs, drug-related crime and deaths will diminish. Then,
harmful use can be openly discouraged and those who have a problem will
come forward and be helped without fear of repression.

- -- Mick Humphreys, Creech St Michael, Somerset

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

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson