KEEP YOUR PROMISE

Sir - Not many people write to say they have experimented with most drugs
and that "heroin is very, very nice". Rupert Turner's letter is very frank,
May 25. I hope he keeps his promise to himself not to try it again.

Only half way through his letter does the weakness of his proposal appear.
First, he states that the drug war cannot be won. No attempt has been made
to fight it yet in this country.

Second, when the "drug centres" are functioning, undercutting current drug
prices, selling presently illegal drugs to anyone over 18 who can pay for
them, as Mr Turner writes, the number of first-time users will surely
increase.

But he thinks this disadvantage can be overcome by the compilation of a drug
user database that will "actually control the volume of use per individual".

This is absurd. The user will top up his controlled supply with illegally
bought supplies. He will probably buy them from the unemployed whom Mr
Turner is going to use to staff his centres.

Unless under-18s are also supplied through the drug centres, the illegal
supply chain will not disappear. And why will the legalisation of supply in
Britain and the increased demand mean "an end to the regimes in Afghanistan
and Colombia"? They should gain from the increase in demand.

Philip Davies

National Drug Prevention Alliance

Hatch End, Middx