LETTERS

KEEP BAN ON DRUGS

EDWARD ELLISON, former drug squad chief, demands that class-A drugs,
including ecstasy, should be legalised (News, last week). He of all people,
and I also speak as a former head of a drug squad, should know the damage
that drug-taking inflicts on individuals. Legalising drugs would simply
increase usage and therefore addiction. The social consequences on the
health service, drug-influenced driving and crime would be unthinkable.

There is little doubt that outlawing handguns will have increased the black
market price and to use his words "hardened criminals will be exploiting
the demand". The logic then is that we should legalise handguns, creating a
free-for-all open market like the United States where a school-age child is
killed with a handgun every day.

Common sense tells us that the way forward is a co-ordinated national
strategy against drug misuse with firm enforcement, early education on the
lethal dangers of drugs together with escape routes for those already
addicted. We must renounce the drug culture, as we have drink-driving and
cigarette smoking.

Chief Supt Brian Mackenzie President, Police Superintendents' Association
of England and Wales