Pubdate: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia) Copyright: News Limited 2000 Contact: 2 Holt Street, Surry Hills, NSW, 2010 Fax: (02) 9288-2300 Website: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ Author: Collis Parrett Note: Headline supplied by newshawk DON'T LEGALISE DRUGS - TOO LATE FOR TOBACCO, ALCOHOL Can we finally put to rest Mitchell Beston's concept that two wrongs make a right (Letters, July 15). The serious health risks of tobacco and alcohol were not known to governments, the medical profession and taxation authorities until hundreds of years after they became socially acceptable and ingrained in our society. No matter how we flail against it, it is too late to ban those products. The lesson is to avoid making cannabis, heroin, cocaine and other drugs socially acceptable as a first step to legalisation, but we do not seem to have learnt it yet. Collis Parrett, Kingston, ACT - --- MAP posted-by: Derek