Source: Letter published in the Dorset Evening Echo

Author: Mrs S Day

LEGALISATION WOULD GIVE US SOME CONTROL

Thank you for printing my first letter on October 22 ("Decriminalising cannabis does not work"), which received a reply in print on the 28th.

I feel I must reply again, this time to Wally Gundry.

With all respect, I can assure Mr Gundry that I am not misinformed about drugs and their street use, and I disagree that legalising cannabis would not work.

He says in his reply that many of Amsterdam's coffee shops are supplied by organised crime.

I do realise this is not the best form of supply. But my point was for us to regain some control of drug use, at least they know who the supplier is.

And they give us a pretty accurate figure on the 6,000 drug addicts left.

But I do find it hard to believe that they can all be left over from the coffee shops boom.

If you look further into this 6,000, as the Dutch have, you will also find that the majority of heroin addicts are now over the age of 40.

We cannot even give real accurate figures on any drug use, except for alcohol and tobacco.

There is no easy way out of this until you accept the fact that people will continue to take drugs and that by legalising them we can at least have some control of their use and can build accurate statistics from the truth, and begin to rehabilitate those that need our help.

As the Alaskans found out, the truth when known is not always an easy pill to swallow. But that is not a good enough excuse for us to sweep it back under the carpet again and just make up the statistics instead.

So I agree with you, we should not make the same mistakes. The twelve-year-olds are still smoking pot in Alaska as they are in Dorchester.

Mrs S Day,

Dorchester

Dorset