Pubdate: Fri, 04 Jan 2008
Source: Western Mail (UK)
Copyright: 2008 Media Wales Ltd
Contact:  http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2598
Author: Lowri Turner, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/richard+brunstrom

RICHARD BRUNSTROM SHOULD STICK TO HIS REAL JOB

The next time you go into Boots, try this. Go up to the  pharmacy
counter and say, "I'd like a dozen Ecstasy  tablets, please".

When the assistant gives you a startled look, inform  them, "It's
safer than aspirin".

If they still look unconvinced, tell them it's not you  saying this,
but the Chief Constable of North Wales.

There, they'll be sure to hand them over, won't they?

We employ police offers to perform a pretty precise  role. They are
paid to prevent crime through their  presence on the streets. Should a
crime occur, we task  them with catching the culprit and assembling
enough  evidence to secure a conviction.

What being a police officer does not include is making  pronouncements
on the right or wrong of law.

Police officers who have gone in for that kind of  thing, Brian
Paddick comes to mind, almost invariably  get themselves into hot water.

The latest to wade, waist deep, into media frenzy is  North Wales
Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom,  pictured. He told BBC Radio Four's
Today programme,  "Ecstasy is a remarkably safe substance. It's far
safer  than aspirin".

Those who favour drug legalisation often come out with  wild
statements such as this. Another prize one I've  heard is you are
you're more likely to be knocked down  by a bus than die of Ecstasy.
With this logic, you  better not take an aspirin and step off a
pavement or  you're a gonner.

The truth is, people die from legal drugs all the time.  But then, go
into a hospital for an ingrown toe nail  and you risk popping your
clogs with MRSA these days.

The difference, of course, between Ecstasy and aspirin,  as with all
street versus legal drugs, is that with the  one licensed for sale,
you sort of know what you're  getting.

Yes, many legal drugs have side effects, not least  cigarettes and
alcohol, neither of which would probably  be allowed to be sold in
corner shops if they were  launched now.

Certain drug companies have not always been entirely  open about the
dangers of the drugs they produce and  sell for large profits. Many
addicts are addicted, not  to illegal substances but to legal ones,
which, once  prescribed, become impossible to get off.

All that said, the families of the 48 people who died  in 2004 from
Ecstasy would surely disagree with Mr  Brunstrom. They are proof that
Ecstasy is not harmless.  But even those families who have not lost
someone as a  result of drug use, who have instead seen the person 
they love stay alive but disappear, to be replaced by a  stranger
whose emotions are blunted or non-existent,  would also have reason to
disagree.

In the ongoing debate on legalisation of drugs,  argument usually
centres on two issues. First, whether  drugs such as cocaine, heroin
or cannabis damage their  users and second, whether legalising them
would stop  addicts breaking into cars, burgling houses, and 
generally making the rest of our lives a misery.

While I'm all for being able to walk out of the house  in the morning
without looking down to see if there is  glass on the pavement by my
battered old Golf, this is  not a good enough reason to ignore the
other damage  that drugs do, not to the user who, frankly, made their 
choice, but to those around them.

And you don't have to be a crack addict to cause the  pain. A
"recreational" cocaine habit can be just as  devastating if you see it
up close.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin