Letter: Drugs are no escape

Sir: You are right to say (leading article, 3 March) that prohibition is not the answer to drug addiction. As you point out, prohibition of alcohol in the US created an even greater problem: organised crime. But you are wrong to suggest that legalisation of drugs will improve matters. Did ending prohibition end alcoholism?

The only solution to the drugs problem is to educate society to realise that drugs give no form of crutch or pleasure, no high or escape - in fact, they do the complete opposite. It is not that the disadvantages of drug addiction outweigh the advantages: there are no advantages, just illusions.

Yours faithfully,

ALLEN J. CARR

London, SW20

5 March

The writer is the author of 'The Only Way to Stop Smoking'.