Madam, - Our ambivalent attitude to alcohol and our reluctance to challenge other people's problem drinking are being dangerously overlooked in the current furore over cocaine.
Cocaine usually goes hand in hand with alcohol. We need to face the fact that in the vast majority of cases alcohol is the gateway drug.
Frequently people who wouldn't normally think of taking illegal drugs end up doing so as their defences are lowered by drinking alcohol.
There are very few drug users who don't have a problem with alcohol also. Many cocaine abusers, when asked about alcohol, will say they drink but are only "binge drinkers". In fact the term "binge drinker" may not be helpful, as it seems to delude us that this type of drinker doesn't have a serious problem with alcohol in its own right.
The committed, pro-active help of the 75 per cent or so who are low-volume, non-problem drinkers is imperative in tackling this issue. In acknowledging the serious cocaine problem, it would be seriously counter-productive to lose sight of the fact that alcohol is the most abused drug in the country. - Yours, etc,
GERRY HICKEY, Counsellor/Psychotherapist, Adelaide Road. Dublin 2.
Madam, - As your Editorial of December 8th puts it, cocaine kills. Cocaine occasionally directly kills people who overdose on the drug. Fortunately these occurrences are quite rare, despite recent tragic events.
But most of the damage done by cocaine, and indeed all illicit drugs, is done indirectly. The evil criminals who bring drugs such as cocaine, heroin and cannabis into this country are truly dangerous people and are responsible for dozens of murders every year. Those of us who spend money on these substances are indirectly causing these avoidable deaths.
But why are these drugs illegal? Because they're dangerous? Are all dangerous things illegal? If drugs could be purchased legally, criminal gangs would go out of business. Gangland murders would drop considerably. The tax revenue collected from drugs could be put to good use, to provide improved treatment for heroin addicts (who are among the most vulnerable and isolated people in our society) and to educate people about the dangers of all drugs. The thousands of man-hours the police spend seizing drugs and tackling gangland crime could be put to different use.
People who decide to take drugs could be assured that what they're taking is at least of reliable quality. Perhaps overdoses could be avoided in this way.
I suspect that none of this will happen, that our nation will continue to be outraged until another major story occupies our collective attention. Meanwhile the corpses will mount up and the criminals will continue winning the war on drugs. - Yours, etc,
COLIN MAHER, Ballitore, Co Kildare.
Madam, - I hope that the parents of the two unfortunate young men in Waterford who were not among the glitterati, but who were killed by cocaine, were heartened that the Taoiseach was represented at the funeral of Ms French. It is clear there is no difference between Waterford and Enniskerry when it comes to cocaine. But, one must ask, does Mr Ahern understand this? - Yours, etc,
JONS CARLSSON, Shankill, Co Dublin.
Madam, - John Waters suggests (Opinion, December 10th) in respect of the death of Katy French that "our culture left her struggling for life, because we have neglected to keep it alive with the knowledge of what it means to be human" and that because of her death and the deaths of Kevin Doyle and John Grey "the dream is over".
The reality is simply that these three young people tragically died because of drug overdoses. - Yours, etc,
NED LAWTON, Geneva, Switzerland.
Madam, - They shook hands and she was gone. Yet in that instant your columnist John Waters appears to have recognised the "personification of our fantasies".
To describe the late Katy French as someone who had "manoeuvred herself into a position where "everything humanly desirable seemed to be within reach" sets the bar both for humanity and for the late model pretty low, methinks.
She was less "a meteorite of desire plummeting through the Irish Zeitgeist' than a young woman who of her own free will put her health in jeopardy. No amount of intoxicated prose can camouflage that fact.
Actions have consequences. She did not die of "desire". Nor had she found "a way of being that promised it could slake all human cravings". But how strangely touching that he could think so given she was all of 24. - Yours, etc,
JEANANNE CROWLEY, Cleggan, Co Galway.
Madam, - May I commend Mr John Waters for writing with tenderness, care and compassion on the recent tragic passing of Ms Katy French. We should treasure such a rarity in the Irish media. - Yours, etc,
ULTAN P. EDGE, Highfield Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6.