Source: Dorset Echo

Pub Date: 13 March 1999

Published letter: Saturation point has been reached

Author: Mrs S. Day

 I WOULD like to reply to Mrs M Morrissey's letter about drugs education ('Are they dying of over-exposure?') in

last Saturday's Echo.

The over-exposure we need to worry about is not the information, or education, that has become our best defence

Indeed, a necessity.

Our problem is over exposure to the drugs themselves.

Our country is at saturation point, and your work, however well intentioned, will not prevent the escalating drug abuse we have now.

Mr Hellawell and his team's efforts may appeal to your generation - they lay themselves open to ridicule when ~ drugs are only looked at as~4eadly and dangerous.

It is poverty that drives many souls to the back streets, but there many more drug takers to be found walking along the promenade with you.

It is prohibition that has been unsuccessful, not the efforts of the educators.

MRS S DAY

I FULLY respect the fact Mrs Day ('Ignorance is remiss', Letters, March 11) has a right to her own opinion, and on this occasion it happens to be different to my own

However, I would like to assure Mrs Day I am well informed on the subject of drugs education to young people. I am on the executive body of Re-solv, an organisation who do research and teaching in the drugs education world. I have also organised a conference for the 'drugs csar' Keith Hellawell.

The thinking and practice for at least 10 years now has been to give young people all possible information on drugs. And what we have seen is a t

terrifying increase in drug and solvent abuse in the young, as they have had increased information through school and the police drug officers. Sadly the south coast, and this obviously includes Dorchester, is living proof. Obviously this method has not been successful; the national thinking is now moving towards the views I expressed in the article on March 1. I have no doubt there will be those who are encouraged through exposure to the horrors of drugs to say no. Sadly, I am not confident that what young people will see in the cannabis cafes of Amsterdam will be off-putting.

I did not, and never will, believe we should leave our children ignorant and uninformed. It would be irresponsible to do so. I stand by my words, and never wish to be in a position where I have contributed to a wasted young life by over-exposing a vulnerable young mind to a problem that my generation should be dealing with.

Let's end the adults who wish to make these dangerous drugs legal to the back streets all over the world where people die in squalor.

Margaret Morrissey

Great Western Road

Dorchester