PROHIBITION would appear to be a perfectly logical method of
discouraging a particular activity (Letters, issue 431). It is
universally used to prevent acts such as murder, rape and theft. But
is it the best way of preventing the use of marketable goods such as
cannabis, heroin or even eggs?

Eggs were rationed during the Second World War, as were meat, flour,
petrol and clothing.

Rationing is merely the prohibition of certain goods above a set
quantity.

Rationing led to a black market and caused otherwise law-abiding
citizens to become criminals.

It also led to corruption with authority figures turning a blind eye
for an extra slice of bacon.

America prohibited alcohol for a decade and a black market flourished.
The prohibition of a marketable commodity automatically produces a
black market.

These goods, unlike other illegal activities such as murder, are
subject to the laws of economics.

Given demand the result of restricting the supply of any commodity is
that the value of it is enhanced. Re-legalisation would eliminate the
inflated profits of these marketable goods.

It took the American government a little over 10 years to see what a
mistake they had made with alcohol prohibition. It is taking them and
our European governments even longer to realise that they are making
the same mistake.

Hugh Robertson Perth, Scotland