Legal or not, people will always take drugs

THERE are fundamental points which rarely get voiced on issues such as the availability of so-called party pills (Irish Examiner, October 16/17) and the knee-jerk reaction that resulted in the ban on magic mushrooms.

The logic seems to be that if someone does something harmful, it must be banned, irrespective of the number of people who take a substance and do not suffer serious ill-effects. Why should people not be allowed to take something because someone died? Despite the carnage on our roads, no one is advocating banning cars.

Any research about the detrimental effects of substances is useless unless we know the level of incidents vis-à-vis the numbers of people taking them. There was no research prior to the ban on magic mushrooms.

Now, people are taking other substances instead and we are told these are more potent than the MDMA in ecstasy. This highlights the old issue that some governments (our own included) are still refusing to acknowledge that if something is banned, people will not stop trying it or stop inventing new substances.

Reports consistently show drug level usage is increasing, despite harsher punitive measures. The banning of substances does not work. It did not work with alcohol in the US and it has not worked in Europe with marijuana, cocaine or opium.

When calls to ban drugs are voiced, few people challenge them. Those who do are ridiculed — a notable exception being your columnist Ryle Dwyer who has pointed out the futility of the ‘war’ on drugs — especially in the US.

Prohibition doesn’t work; education does.

Billy Burke

Shandon Street

Cork