Source: Letter published in the Dorset Evening Echo

Author: Mrs S Day

CONTROL THE SUPPLY

I DO hope you will print this letter which is once again in reply to M walker's recent reply (Nov 4) to my last letter, which tackles my suggestion of legalising drugs.

He asks where I get my information from. I can assure him it certainly goes a lot further than the recent Channel Four programme he mentions.

I have my own personal studies from over the past 20 years, as a writer and self-publisher.

I study the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit's yearly reports. I regularly attend meetings and events. I was also invited to the Cannabis Conference in London last year. I am also aware of all the newspaper reports and follow opinion polls etc.

I am a member of Transform and CLCIA. I talk with not a few youngsters, but with hundreds of people of all ages using drugs, both legally and illegally.

My point was that there illegality has created a thriving black market and this has made most drugs exciting and accessible.

We can learn from the supply of currently legal products that are available, and are far more dangerous than cannabis - namely alcohol, tobacco and prescribed Methadone, Prozac etc. At least with these you have some control of the quality and supply, be it down to the shopkeepers, barmen or doctors and the enforcement of trading standards, with penalties of losing their licence if illegal sales or prescriptions are made.

We all know this is not an infallible system and youngsters still get hold of these products. But if we think about making them illegal we can see it would be impossible to police and would soon become completely out of control and unsafe.

Mr walker brings better fuel into the argument. I lost my best friend at the age of 14 because of this abuse.

Yet it is a legal product, but for filling lighters. I agree it is about time the law prevented its sale to under-16's, but this will sadly not stop its illegal use. If we could offer our young adults the alternative of comfortable cafe bars where they could enjoy cannabis, I am sure there wouldn't be many left sniffing gas or glue. Because alcohol is legal for adults, there aren't many of us looking forward to an evening in with the lighter gas!

I don't think prohibition is saving many lives, against the thousands that ignore it anyway. You ask if I have ever seen needles in the streets of Amsterdam. Yes I have, and in London, Southampton and Bournemouth. Of course theft and vandalism shouldn't be legal, this is just drifting from the argument, as we all want the police to have more time to deal with these ugly crimes. I do not advocate drug-taking, but I suggest we are going to have to accept that people will go on doing it anyway.

We need to learn together and work towards regaining control of the supply. License it, police it, and take away the attractiveness of it and, of course, make a lot of tax revenue out of it.

Mrs S Day,

Dorchester

Dorset