Rethink UK drugs strategy

Sir, - Former US President Richard Nixon’s war on drugs produced the worst example of legislative unintended consequences in the USA since the equally misguided prohibition of alcohol.

Four decades of devastation in the Americas are finally being addressed as state after state legalises marijuana as a first step to the eventual decriminalisation of narcotics.

In every state where this reform has occurred, tax revenues are up and its cultivation produces jobs while teenage consumption and drugrelated crime has fallen.

The Royal Society for Public Health has recommended the United Kingdom decriminalises all illegal drugs on the grounds that addiction is an issue for healthcare systems, not the courts.

In the dog days of New Labour, Gordon Brown sacked his drugs czar Professor David Nutt when he advocated this approach but hopefully we are now in a more enlightened age. Rev Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.