Sir, - Kevin Myers is to be commended in provoking a discussion about current policies aimed at controlling drug abuse. He is right when he claims that the policies of control which prevail in nearly all Western countries are unlikely to succeed. The proposition to decriminalise drugs deserves serious consideration.
I am personally in favour of examining such an approach, and many others in the United States and elsewhere, who are greater authorities in the matter than I would support decriminalisation. At least the option should be examined critically at an international level, and I would agree with Dr Ian O'Donnell (Irish Times, April 12th) that the crime council established by the Minister for Justice should review all aspects of the drug problem, including alternatives to our current policies of control.
The control of drug abuse would go a long way to reduce the increasing crime trend and would have other obvious benefits.
Yours, etc.,
The Charlemont Clinic Charlemont Mall,
Dublin 2,