LETTER: Missing the
point
Source: York Press
Date: October 19 2006
Author: Steve Clements
---
T
J Ryder is missing the point entirely (Quest for a high, Readers' Letters,
October 14).
If drugs are a source of income to the Taliban, then remove it from them. This
means taking control of the trade from farmer to end user, that means
legalising the trade.
Then we can stop killing people. There are legitimate uses of heroin in the
health service and I believe currently a worldwide shortage of opiate drugs.
The difficulty with prohibition is that many of the prohibited substances are
actually less harmful than the legal mass killers alcohol and tobacco.
It would seem from his letter that TJ Ryder would want these substances handed
over to the criminal market as well. Hasn't that been tried already?
Why should legalising drugs lead to anarchy? We have that now. The illegal drug
market is the second largest business in the world.
The US has been trying to eradicate the coca plant in South America for years;
cocaine use has doubled worldwide, including the UK.
Not only has prohibition failed, it is making things worse. Cannabis use is not
a gateway to hard drugs, the criminal market is. Nor is it
physically addictive, that is another piece of drug war propaganda to keep
everyone in fear and to maintain prohibition.
Prohibition corrupts too. Two per cent of US police officers are drug dealers,
and most drugs in prison are supplied by prison officers. Fourteen members of the Italian parliament
have tested positive for cannabis and cocaine.
T J Ryder, just like our politicians, is burying his head in the sand.
Steve Clements, The Legalise Cannabis Alliance, Asquith Avenue, York.
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/readersletters/
letters@ycp.co.uk