Letters
Opiates and the people
Sir: Mr Wheatcroft puts forward an abso- lutist argument (Letters, 22 December) for the decriminalising of heroin. Since some drugs are legal and socially acceptable, all drugs must be permitted: they only differ in degree of toxicity and addiction. By the same reasoning, as fireworks are available over the counter of one's local newsagent in late October, does he suggest that grenades should also be available to those who get their fun from big bangs? After some permissive experiment like that no doubt someone could collect the statistics to show that a number of individuals can successfully carry grenades around in their pockets without coming to any harm. That would prove something, as Mr Wheatcroft would say — but what exactly? The drawing of a distinction between two things which are of the same kind but of different degree is commonly done and indeed it would be a strange freedom that did not have limits. Ideally these limits are respected by individual responsibility with- out statute. But our society contains a wide range of people some of whom are less responsible than others. To dismiss the state's role in protecting these individuals simply as paternalist is, to invite the retort of anarchist.
R. Trail
P. 0. Box 184, Al Majma'a, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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