Pubdate: Mon, 25 Jul 2016 Source: Cape Times (South Africa) Copyright: 2016 Cape Times Contact: http://www.capetimes.co.za/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2938 Author: Stephen Pain ALTERNATIVES NEEDED THE page-four report "Strategy on drugs slammed" (Cape Times, July 21) rightly draws attention to the negative consequences of drug prohibition on society in general and on public health in particular. But the "experts" who make a living trying to cure these ills must find a far more nuanced approach if real progress is to be made. The opening premise that "drug users... could benefit from a variety of support structures instead of strict punitive measures" fails to recognise the fact that many - probably most - "drug users" would, like most drinkers, simply like to be left alone to use their drug of choice, without interference from puritanical, interfering busybodies in the employ of a "Nanny State". Writing a hundred years ago in The Soul of the Ape, Eugene Marais observed that he did "not know of any human race, savage or cultured, which has not developed or acquired from other races the habit of using some poison, generally of vegetable origin, for the purpose of creating euphoria". With equally uncomfortable insight of the Hottentot, Griqua and Koranna peoples,Marais said: "As a united nation they exist no longer and I do not think that any South African historian of the future will hesitate to ascribe this rapid decline not so much to the hostile invasions and conquests of white and black foes as to the destructive effects of alcohol." Your report ended with the (unattributed) claim that "the most commonly abused substances on the continent (are) cannabis and alcohol". This surprised me because for many years the top spot had always gone to tobacco with alcohol, of course, a very close second. And if numerous recent reports in this newspaper are to be believed, then third and fourth places for the most commonly abused health-threatening substances must surely go to sugar and salt. Stephen Pain Friends of the Earth CC, Riversdale - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom