Admit the war against drugs is futile
HAVING sat waiting (yet again) for a prescription to be dispensed in the pharmacy of my local health centre and watching a stream of addicts entering their own wee section to get their daily methadone dose, I can’t help but wonder at the logic, or lack of it, behind Westminster’s refusal to sanction safer injection rooms.
It appears okay for the taxpayer to supply narcotics to addicts to be taken under supervision in a controlled environment with the profits going to Big Pharma, but not for the individuals themselves to supply their own drugs and the “black economy” to take its cut.
Would it not just be easier to dump the outdated Victorian morality and admit the war against drugs is futile, then to bring the trade into the open and regulate it just as we do with tobacco and alcohol?
Judging by the activities of some very senior politicians many other Victorian values and norms have already been kicked into touch. David J Crawford, Glasgow, G12.
Leave it to the young
IN response to John Birkett (Letters, March 6) suggesting raising the voting age to 21, I would suggest banning adults from the franchise and allowing the 16-30-year-olds to vote. Their seniors have destroyed the planet with their economic growth, and their toxic waste. They do not deserve any say in what must be done to try to reverse the damage, before we are all up the creek without a paddle.
Let Greta Thunberg, Finley Pringle and Extinction Rebellion decide what action must be taken, and leave adults out of the equation. Margaret Forbes, Kilmacolm.
RECENT weeks have seen sensationalist headlines about high Antarctic temperatures or
IN a recent debate on the financing of the BBC and free television licences for the over-75s, Baroness Liddell said the BBC was a ‘’gold standard’’ of journalism around the world and the BBC World Service was an essential diplomatic tool “(Scrapping free TV licence could leave elderly isolated, peer warns”, The Herald, March 6). With all due respect to the Baroness, she clearly has limited experience of rival TV, radio and other media providers.
Moreover, if, as she claims, the BBC actually is “gold standard’’ then it need have no concern about transferring to funding mechanisms like that used by Netflix. The BBC has lived off its reputation for far too long.
Doug Clark, Currie.
PRESSURE to replace or provide an alternative to the national
Six O’ Clock News and the 6.30 Scottish News with a Scottish Six was resisted. Scotland continued to be catered for in the same way as all the other areas of the United melting. However, research suggests something different.
For example, Barbara Stenni was lead author of 18 scientists in a 2017 study that mentions “the absence of significant continentalscale warming of Antarctica over the last 100 years”. They say the same for Africa.
The Climategate emails, where so-called climate scientists wrongly believed they were communicating privately, contain hints on how some climate science is really conducted. In an email dated October 11, 2004, meteorologist Matthew Lazzara complains about the selection of various Antarctic weather stations as part of a long-term study of global temperatures, writing “some of the sites suffer from snow
Kingdom, and why should it be any different?
However, a handsome concession accumulation, altering the height of the sensors above the surface … we have not been able to service/ visit all of these sites over the last several years… some of the stations are not operating well”. Conversely, he questions why some stations were excluded, including one called “Gill” that “represents one of the coldest spots on the Ross Ice Shelf”. Geoff Moore, Alness.
Clear up fox confusion
HOPEFULLY, the reported case of a trapped fox will not be in vain, albeit no prosecution was brought in this case (“RSPCA opts not to bring charges against prominent lawyer”, The Herald, March 6). It does seem Government guidelines and the RSPCA’S interpretation was made. Scotland was to have a whole new channel, BBC Scotland. Including a Scottish Six? Well, no. are at variance on such matters. The public are deserving of fuller clarification. At least the party involved has expressed due contrition in this matter, but that was doubtless due to his callous tweeting immediately following his bludgeoning of the trapped animal.
Allan C Steele, Giffnock.
Shaking it up
WITH our traditional press-theflesh handshake and the more recent awkward flustering lips-to-cheek greetings currently no-go manouevres, I guess many of us will be practising safer Eastern “wave-wave” and
“Thai Wai” salutations.
Meantime, in the spirit of Michael
But there was to be a brand new, hour-long news and current affairs programme – The Nine. Wow.
But wait a minute. Is nine o’ clock not the very time when all the dramas and documentaries watched by everyone who might be interested in The Nine are on air, and not just on BBC1, but BBC 2, STV, Channel 4 and BBC4 as well? Bad timing? Or sabotage?
Being the sort of person who will watch the Six O’ Clock News and the 6.30 Scottish news you might sacrifice a new drama for the time being to sample The Nine, to be discouraged when the stories already seen at 6pm or 6.30pm are simply repeated here.
That’s not all the fault of The Nine. There are good presenters, reporters and analysts, with good original reports, but the only way to access them is to record and then cherry-pick later. Better than nothing maybe. But no substitute for a Scottish Six, which of course it was not intended to be.
Ronald Maclean, Beauly.
Collie’s “Don’t panic” exhortation (Letters, March 6), I suggest a National “Beat The Bug Day” when we extend decorous hands-free “knees and boomps-a-daisy” recognition.
Those of a more exuberant or heroic disposition may like to consider giving it laldy by following up with the Hokey-cokey to lift the spirits and cock a snook at pestilential microbes.
R Russell Smith, Kilbirnie.
WITH all the advice being given on washing our hands and hygiene, could someone please tell football and rugby players that spitting on the pitch they are likely to fall over on is not a good idea at any time, but less so now.
Jane Lax, Aberlour.