LEGALISATION WILL ENSLAVE PEOPLE

by 'D' in recovery (name and address supplied)

" I remember reading Theodore Dalrymple's piece when I was just in to my own recovery - and it helped change my views on legalisation, particularly where he talks about the 'enslavement' of users and drugs limiting individual freedoms.

My personal belief is that any addict, regardless of the substance, is motivated to change by the freedom a life without substances promises... a life that isn't completely governed by the need to satisfy the addict.

In making drugs legal and easily accessible, I fear we will make this an impossible choice for most users.

Apologies for referencing my own journey, but I feel my own experience is relevant in this case. After 10 years of heroin addiction and countless attempts to 'get clean', including four or five methadone scripts and five rehabs, I was offered 'a final choice' by the clinic I was accessing at that time; prescribed injectable diamorphine for as long as I wanted or one last go at rehab. I was given until my next appointment to decide.

A large part of me felt I had reached the 'holy grail' of heroin addiction - the opportunity for an endless supply of free drugs. But a small voice inside understood this to mean a life of enslavement no different to the one I was already living.

What I wanted more than anything else was the opportunity to free myself and realise the dreams that had never really left me throughout my time as an addict. For this reason I chose rehab.

The most frustrating issue for me re legalisation is the continual reference to drugs negatively affecting only a "minority" - well, 350,000 is some minority, and what about those close to the addict? - and that those who can enjoy it at the weekend without any adverse impact on their lives should not be punished.

This almost reads as 'why should we be punished because a few (350,000 and counting) lightweights can't handle their drugs?' "