I wonder whether it would not be better in the end to let a huge increase in drug-related deaths act as a deterrent. Many doctors are fed up with spending more time on drug addicts than on people who are genuinely ill and suffering from problems not of their own seeking. In some places it is becoming difficult to find doctors willing to join general practices because they are sick of writing out prescriptions for methadone and of the abuse and violence they often suffer at the hands of those patients. The total number of drugs-related deaths in Scotland rose from 12 in 1995 to 30 in 1996. Clearly we cannot continue as we are.
Some people advocate legalising soft drugs such as cannabis and Ecstasy.
They claim that at a stroke it should be possible to take the profit out of drug trafficking. They should consider that if it is sanctioned by law, people will think that it cannot be very harmful and all social sanctions will be removed. But increased availability will lead to more people taking them with consequent damage to health and safety and so forth. Those people argue that there is no proof that soft drugs damage health, but they are unable to offer any proof that they do not. Indeed, there is more evidence that they do than that they do not.