The Swedish drugs adviser, Borje Dahl, claims that the restrictive Swedish narcotics policy has succeeded in reducing the number of young people using drugs in the country to under 3% (Irish Examiner, September 6, 2000). His claim is not supported by the Swedish Government's own published figures. According to that report the use of illegal drugs in Sweden is escalating out of control. Drug use amongst young people has more than doubled during the 1990s, with 18% of young men now using drugs. [continues 95 words]
It is absurd that a highly effective herbal medicine with very few undesirable side effects should be illegal. Hopefully other countries will follow Canada's example and stop wasting police time and resources hunting down and prosecuting people for using a naturally-occurring substance that is claimed to be much safer and effective than many over-the-counter painkillers. John Yates, Ekenas, Finland [end]
I was heartened to read your report of August 1 that Ontario's highest court has declared Canada's law forbidding the possession of marijuana to be unconstitutional. It is absurd that a highly effective herbal medicine with very few undesirable side effects should be illegal. Hopefully other countries will follow Canada's example and stop wasting police time and resources hunting down and prosecuting people for using a naturally-occurring substance that is claimed to be much safer and effective than many over-the-counter painkillers. John Yates, Ekenas, Finland [end]
PAUL BETTS claims that hard-drug dealers 'rely on cannabis to get people hooked.' Has it not occurred to him that cannabis users come into contact with pushers of hard drugs only because cannabis is illegal and the market is controlled by the same criminals who would rather sell hard drugs? The Dutch system of licensed coffee shops has done an excellent job of insulating cannabis users from hard-drug pushers. John Yates Ekenas, Finland [end]
I READ that we must maintain a concerted effort against drug dealers who make millions out of dealing death to young people (War on drugs must continue, The Examiner July 30). Are we now going to see the directors of the tobacco and alcohol companies held accountable for dealing in death, or is our sense of moral outrage selective and hypocritical? John Yates, Jaktvagen 3B13, 10650 Ekenas, Finland. john.yates@pp.inet.fi [end]
Are we now going to see the directors of the tobacco and alcohol companies held accountable for dealing in death, or is our sense of moral outrage selective and hypocritical? John Yates, Jaktvagen 3B13, 10650 Ekenas, Finland [end]
Sweden has been regarded as a modern, liberal and tolerant country for the greater part of this century. The `Swedish Model' welfare state set a glowing example for the Social Democratic parties of Europe to emulate. But Recent press revelations show there is another, sinister, side to the Swedish Model. For 40 years, from 1935 to 1976, during the time of Social Democrat rule while the welfare state was being built, Sweden carried out Nazi style `racial Hygiene' policies. The leading Swedish newspaper `Dagens Nyheter' reported in a series of articles, 20-21.8.97 that at least 60.000 people, mostly young women and girls, were forcibly sterilised to protect the Nordic Aryan stock from `inferior races' and `moral degenerates'. [continues 2691 words]
Sir, Dr Paul Skett, of Glasgow University, says it is "a belief born of ignorance" to say that ecstasy and amphetamine are safe (your report, 17 April). But it is a belief born of ignorance to say many common substances are safe. One of Scotland's major exports, whisky, is a neurotoxin that causes brain damage on a scale far greater than that which may or may not be caused by ecstasy. Proportionally, far more people are killed and injured by alcohol than by all the illegal drugs combined. Noone would claim that alcohol is safe and yet people are prepared to take the risk in order to add an extra dimension of enjoyment to their lives. [continues 54 words]
Dr Paul Skett, of Glasgow University, says it is "a belief born of ignorance" to say that ecstasy and amphetamine are safe (your report, 17 April). But it is a belief born of ignorance to say many common substances are safe. One of Scotland's major exports, whisky, is a neurotoxin that causes brain damage on a scale far greater than that which may or may not be caused by ecstasy. Proportionally, far more people are killed and injured by alcohol than by all the illegal drugs combined. No-one would claim that alcohol is safe and yet people are prepared to take the risk in order to add an extra dimension of enjoyment to their lives. [continues 58 words]
The situation there is certainly far better than that in Scotland. The Lancet recommended the adoption of Dutch policies in the UK in an editorial last year, and many other countries are examining the Dutch model with a view to emulating its successes. The chief medical officer of Copenhagen recommended recently that Denmark should allow Dutch-style cannabis coffee shops and even go further by having a state-owned system of cannabis production and distribution. The German state of Schleswig Holstein is to open a pilot programme of legal cannabis sales this year. Legalisation is proving to be a policy that can bring illegal drugs under control. It is a policy that could be adopted with great advantage by Scotland and then, perhaps, Scotland's drug problems will drop to the level of those in the Netherlands. John Yates Jaktvagen, Ekenas, Finland [end]
