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