Letter: Prescribing GPs can help drug-addicted patients as much as specialists

Tuesday 18 May 1993 00:02 BST

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Sir: Congratulations on your courageous leading article 'Thinking the unthinkable on drug-related crime' (15 May).

The trouble is that our society has lost its belief in free will. No one needs to take hard drugs, but if, knowing the consequences, people choose to do so, we should not try to save them from themselves. True, the burden on the NHS would increase, but, with the money we would save on crime prevention, we could afford this. In any case, once legalised, I suspect that heroin and cocaine would soon lose the allure that attaches to what is forbidden.

Yours faithfully,

JOHN BELOFF

Edinburgh

16 May

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Letter: Prescribing GPs can help drug-addicted patients as much as specialists

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