THERE is a genuine debate about how to deal with the harm done by drug addiction. Shirley Matthias decides not to address it however, preferring to bask in her own unpleasant sanctimony.

It is easy after all to hurl abuse at easy targets and there are no easier targets than drug addicts.

It doesn't occur to Shirley that the catalogue of tragedies she presents occurred under the War On Drugs regime. She argues, illogically, that this regime is the only way to prevent these tragedies.

Ludicrously she seems to believe that before becoming addicts people sit down and work out a balance sheet of potential future supplies.

To solve the problem we need to look beyond the vacuous 'drug addicts are all bad; they don't need our sympathy' approach.

Andy Newman is in august company in pointing to the failure of the current approach. The Association of Chief Police Officers has argued that heroin should be prescribed to those who want it.

This approach has cut crime where tried, improved the health of addicts and even cut addiction rates.

P SMITH

Swindon