Madam, - Your edition of April 12th quotes the Garda Commissioner saying that drugs-related gun crime now requires so many Garda resources to contain it that detection rates for other crimes have suffered.
It's about time the powers that be realised that the war on drugs is lost. With ever-increasing demand and huge illicit profits a new strategy is required. Sooner or later, and it might as well be sooner, the illegal drugs will have the same status as the legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco. This strategy would have three positive results:
(a) The criminals would be deprived of their main source of wealth.
(b) The quality of the substances could be assured. The greatest hazard at present is that people don't know what they're dealing with.
(c) The new State could impose tax, as with alcohol and tobacco. The revenue could be used for clinical treatment, education, etc. We need to face the unpalatable truth that young and not- so-young people are unwilling to abstain.
There's a choice between a bad way and a worse way. At present the worse is where we're at. - Yours, etc,
JAMES MORAN, Knockanure, Bunclody, Co Wexford.