Philip Cooper refers to the current problems we have with alcohol as
the reason we should not legalise marijuana (Letters, 14 March, p 58).

What he fails to mention is that the US tried banning alcohol, and it
was a disaster. Prohibition failed to produce any long-term reductions
in alcohol use and created new problems of its own.

One such problem was a massive increase in the use of alcohol by
children. During Prohibition, school officials reported that they were
unable to hold school dances and other events because it had become
fashionable for all the male students to show up with a hip flask of
whisky. They even had to close some schools for a while because so
many kids were coming to school drunk.

The slogan of the campaign for Prohibition was "Save the Children".
The same slogan was used in the campaign for its repeal--by some of
the same people who had campaigned for Prohibition in the first place.
They reported that, before Prohibition, their children had been unable
to get alcohol easily. After Prohibition came into effect, their
children became involved in the liquor trade. The major problems of
violent crime and alcohol use by children did not diminish until
alcohol was legalised once again.

The lesson of history is that these drugs may be bad, for a lot of
reasons, but that prohibition doesn't solve those problems, it only
makes the situation worse.

Clifford A. Schaffer
DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy
http://www.druglibrary.org