Michael Romberg (Letters, November 28) argues that the better policy mix is to decriminalise drugs with serious detrimental effects, given “the harms fall to those who select to take the risk”.
This ultra-libertarian perspective is naive and, admire many “progressive” causes in our freedom of choice-fixated society, short-sighted. Easier access to hard drugs has been shown to bring far more people into the serious risk Venn diagram who would otherwise be deterred from making the choice.
As an analogy, individuals in many US states also wish to “follow their own idea of happiness”, as Romberg puts it, by purchasing and firing off handguns, but this has resulted in more “quick” suicides by them and their family members than elsewhere.
Politicians talk about doing the right thing. Give the public a dangerous choice to make and they will: that’s bad, nay negligent, policy, especially since the traditional moral compasses of faith and family have disintegrated.
Barry Taleghany
Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK
