YOUR "Agony and Ecstasy" editorial (issue 356) exhorts governments to
deliver a clearer message on the evils of drugs and encourages the police
to close down drugmaking laboratories. But this is exactly what the
authorities have been trying to do for the past 20 or 30 years, to no avail.

Drug use and associated crime are escalating out of control as
international drug gangs grow rich at our expense. Drugs have their
dangers, but people are prepared to take the risks, as with the legal drugs
alcohol and tobacco. Would it not be far better to legalise all drugs
under strict regulation?

This would eliminate the criminal black market, deprive organised crime of
its greatest source of income and allow adults to decide for themselves
which risks they are prepared to take.

F Smit
The Hague, the Netherlands