Look at drugs as a medical problem

Published: August 11, 2011

I AM most saddened by yet another young person’s death (Agony of addicts like Winehouse, August 4).

All addicts who recognise their problem have is a patchy service, much of which is from dedicated individuals like Father Tom Forde in the article. While they undoubtedly help many thousands of addicts, the problem is showing no signs of coming under control, with new people falling into addiction by the day.

In the last few days, a record £300million haul was reported, about 1.2 tonnes of cocaine, found on a luxury yacht.

Yet this only represents about four per cent of the UK’s annual use of this single drug! This shows that, although a major victory, we are nowhere near winning the battle to prevent drugs coming into the country.

It is time we turned the “war on drugs” into something more sensible. We must accept that drugs are an awful but inevitable factor in modern life – not forgetting that alcohol is the oldest and still the most widespread cause of problems – and not just in addiction, but as a scourge of most city centres most nights.

People will take drugs if they are available, and we know we cannot stop this happening.

All the millions of pounds spent trying, globally, to tackle the supply end of the problem are failing.

It seems obvious we should try to mitigate the consequences of drug use, by helping to stop people getting started and helping addicts.

This is a medical problem and the sooner we realise this and treat it as such, the better for us all: the addicts, their families, and ourselves as a society. Controlling drug use will save taxpayers’ money.

We should boost education into the realities of drug use.

In parallel we should decriminalise their possession in amounts reasonable for personal use, and introduce an open system for addicts to use to get help in dealing with their addiction, making participation in such programmes compulsory for anyone guilty of committing a crime.
David Reed,
Eton Avenue, NW3