A WAR ON DRUGS WILL INEVITABLY FAIL

THE PRIME Minister has redefined 'zero tolerance' as no tolerance for any
views on drug control but his own.

Defending his Government against making a formal apology for the stolen
generation, he said, (May 26), 'It is possible to hold different views on
the appropriate response and yet be united in seeking reconciliation''.
Curiously, he does not extend that latitude to drug control.

As he has committed himself to continuation of a policy on drugs that has
spectacularly and consistently failed for 80 years, the Australian
community can only look forward to further expensive failure to control
this major scourge. (Prohibition began in the USA in 1919; its failure to
achieve anything but increased crime was recognised 14 years later.)

There are no simple solutions, but it is bizarre that a government so
wedded to free enterprise and the profit motive is unable to see the
connection between prohibition, higher profits for those peddlers (the
majority) not caught, and continued growth in the drug trade.

We will make no progress while the lure of super profits continues to
attract pushers, while the irrationality of 'economic rationalism'
continues to produce victims for them to exploit.

A. W. W. GODFREY Curtin

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski