Legalisation of drugs Recipe for damage akin to alcoholism

ANY debate about the legalisation of street drugs will take place against the back story of the havoc, despair and absolute lifelong misery inflicted on millions of Irish people by that most seductive and available of all drugs: alcohol.

In a society where nearly every family has endured, or is enduring, the heartbreak of seeing a father, mother, brother, sister or a dear friend turned into something less than human, something immeasurably less than the person they once loved — or struggle to still love — because of alcohol, it may be asking too much to allow cocaine to be sold by Dunnes Stores.

Alcohol has scarred every workplace, every community and ruined far, far too many relationships.