Madam, - In a previous letter of mine, which you published, I wrote that sooner or later - and it might as well be sooner - all illegal drugs will have the same status as alcohol and tobacco. The illegal drugs trade is the engine which drives major crime. Ever more police resources are being deployed in a vain effort to combat this trade.
But it's all for show. With such huge profits to be made, no police force can curb drug crime.
Meanwhile, the crime that affects most citizens - robbery, burglary and criminal yobbery, euphemistically referred to as "anti-social behaviour" - cannot be dealt with.
Legalisation would have three major benefits:
1. The criminals would be deprived of their greatest source of income.
2. The quality of narcotic substances could be assured (bad mixes, dirty needles, etc can be lethal.
3. The State could tax currently illegal substances, as it does alcohol and tobacco, and the revenue could be used to provide clinical treatment and to fund a propaganda campaign to show drugs as no longer "cool".
It is a great pity that people can't get through life without benefit of drugs. But it is a fact we must accept. It is time to read the writing on the wall, Madam. It is certainly writ large enough. - Yours, etc,
JAMES MORAN, Knockanure, Bunclody, Co Wexford.