DRUGS POLICY HAS MADE PROBLEM WORSE

In July, 1992, a Mail headline read: "War on the drug pushers", and claimed
"this switch of tactics" had proved so successful it was to be extended
throughout East Yorkshire.

Ten years and countless "get the dealer" policies later and the county is
littered with no-go areas, drug-related crime has spiralled out of control
and kids are smoking cannabis.

These are the consequences of an insane suppression of information that has
caused more damage than illegal drugs ever could and proves that
heavy-handed prohibitionist tactics don't work.

All we have seen is our courts filled with otherwise law-abiding cannabis
users, alienation of our youth, with criminal organisations growing richer
by the day.

Now we have opened a gateway to hard drugs by throwing them all into one
basket along with cannabis - from the safest to most dangerous - under a
Tackling Drugs Together policy.

Simply saying the word "drugs" has been used as justification for stopping
and searching people and sniffing people with dogs, confiscating people's
property, invading tens of thousands of homes and businesses and, more
recently, drug testing in the workplace.

Is it any wonder that so many have disrespect for the law?

Carl Wagner,
Legalise Cannabis Alliance,
Victoria Square,
Ella Street, Hull.