The "war on crack" will fail just as have all the other wars on drugs.
In the US, far more stringent prohibition penalties have been applied and all that has been achieved is overflowing prisons and rocketing crime-waves.
Legalisation and decriminalisation are the way out of our drugs problem. Cannabis and ecstasy should be legalised and sold in off-licences like their more addictive legal equivalents, tobacco and alcohol, already are.
Heroin, cocaine and crack should be decriminalised and made available
on prescription, then given under medical supervision, as happened before the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.
This would give the State quality control and remove the profit motive which, in turn, would deter dealers far more than any rantings about stiffer sentences.
These, as everyone knows, have proved no deterrent whatsoever when it comes to providing a ready market with illegal drugs.
-Nigel Baker, Vale Road, Portslade
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