Sir, – "The laws don't work. Criminalising drug use doesn't work. The seizures don't work." (Una Mullally, "It is ludicrous to hand over drug quality control to criminal gangs", Opinion & Analysis, January 25th). Your columnist is absolutely right.
Our present policy of allowing the controlled sale of alcohol and nicotine while other drugs are illegal is simply not working.
Ireland has one of the highest levels of drug-related deaths in the whole of Europe.
Many addicts live in misery and die, while illegal drug producers and sellers live in luxury, using criminality, gang wars and murder to market their deadly wares and extort payment from their victims and their families.
Illegal drugs pose two huge problems for society. One is demand fuelled by addiction. The other is the criminal mayhem generated by illegal supply. Neither is easily solved. A long-term policy of social development and education will bring some improvement but will probably never completely eradicate the demand for drugs. The problems associated with the illegal supply of drugs can be dealt with by legalising their supply with appropriate controls and medical support.
We should be taking a lead in this country and also persuade our partners in the European Union to evolve similar regimes that will face up to the problem realistically. We need to be honest and open enough to consider making the necessary changes.
What is clear is that there is an ongoing demand for drugs. So long as there is a demand there is a market and suppliers will enter that market to profit from it. There is general agreement that cigarette smoking is seriously harmful but society has agreed to deal with that odious market by legalising and regulating it. Otherwise it too would be prone to criminal supply and lawlessness. – Yours, etc,
JACK MORRISSEY,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – I agree with many of the points made by Una Mullally. However, she has mistaken decriminalisation for the legalisation of drugs. Decriminalisation allows drug users to carry small amounts of drugs for their own use. It still remains a crime to manufacture and supply these drugs and has no impact on quality assurance or safety.
Legalisation allows for the growing or manufacture, supply and possession of the drug. More importantly it allows governments to tax and place safeguards on the manufacture of the drug, as is the case with alcohol and tobacco. Unfortunately such an approach does not reduce the harm caused by the use of the drug since these two legal drugs cause the most harm both in terms of morbidity and mortality.
The most effective approach to reducing harm is to reduce demand and we do this by giving potential drug users an alternative to drug use like sport, recreation and education.
Recreational drug use among young people is a fact of life. Una Mullally’s support of a more realistic harm-reduction approach to drug education and prevention is welcome. – Yours, etc,
Dr DES CROWLEY,
Dublin 6.