[jambutty]

The only people who are living in ‘cloud cuckoo land’ Mancie are those people who cannot think further than their own front door. Whether we like it or not there are drugs and current methods to get rid of drug addiction have not succeeded. In fact I would suggest that the drug addiction problem is much worse today than it was 50 years ago. This radical suggestion has at least got a chance of succeeding if proper, forceful and nitty gritty school education is also brought in and the source supply was bought up before the drug barons can get their hands on it.

Your tobacco or nicotine addiction as an analogy doesn’t hold water. You can get nicotine patches free from the NHS and free counselling. And to suggest being given 100 fags a week is rather silly. You would have to go the office that issues the fags every time that you wanted a smoke and smoke the fag in the presence of the doctor or nurse if you are trying to compare smoking with drug taking.

I agree with you Ianto.W. in that if no one would buy the stolen goods, no one would steal them. But the reality is that far too many people will buy something that is a lot cheaper than from bona fide sources, from a stranger. Surely people must realise that if they are offered a TV for $50 that would normally retail at several hundred, it has to be stolen from someone. But people don’t care that someone has gone through the trauma of having their house burgled because they are getting a bargain. Those people are as much to blame for the situation as the drug dealers.

Sadly though, you cannot un-invent or un-discover something so it is wishful thinking to rest your case on “if there were no drugs there would be no addicts”. The reality is that there AREDRUGS, DRUG BARONS, PUSHERS AND USERS and the users commit crimes to fund their habit. But that’s not all, many junkies end up seeking hospital treatment because of dirty needles, HIV, hepatitis, blood poisoning etc. and use up resources that could have been used to treat sick or injured people.