Michael Duffy’s claim (SMH, 7 September) that ‘illegal drug use is fun and - unless you get caught – harmless’, is erroneous, contradictory, and sends a very dangerous message.  His article is a blatant abuse of his journalistic licence and Drug Free Australia is seeking a right of reply.

Error No. 1 - Alcohol and tobacco cause greatest harm
Proportionately, per capita, this is questionable. However the point is that these drugs have been legalized, thus making them more acceptable and available. If illicit drugs were to be legalized, as is suggested by Mr Duffy, we would see far greater harm in our communities, adding to the existing health burdens caused by alcohol and tobacco. We’ve already seen this with the decriminalization cannabis in SA in the late 80’s which lead to increased use, and people thinking it was not harmful. Evidence to the contrary now shows that it has all the health problems of tobacco, plus links to schizophrenia and psychosis. Without being legalized, Cannabis is still the most used illicit drug in Australia.

Error No 2 – Prohibition is considered ‘incredulous’
The 20 year QUIT smoking campaigns in Australia have effectively prohibited advertising in our media, prohibited smoking in our bars, planes, buses, train, trams  and workplaces. They are internationally acknowledged as making a significant contribution to Australia’s reduced smoking rates.

Error No 3 – The War on drugs is failing
This is totally incorrect. Examples to the contrary include this quote from a recent Australian Federal Police report.

“It has been confirmed that in late 2000, the heroin availability within Australia fell.  Authoritative analysis has found the shortage could be attributed - at least in part - to the success of law enforcement efforts in disrupting major trafficking syndicates supplying the Australian market with heroin from South East Asia.
For instance, it led to a significant drop in the number of fatal overdoses from heroin, with some 600 fewer deaths per year than were occurring in the late 1990s’.

The War on Drugs is not lost – it has just taken a new course. If anything, we need to increase our effort and Drug Free Australia has strategies on how we could do this, with recommendations to the Federal Parliament.

Error No 4 – Illicit drug are not harmful

• Ask any parent who has lost one of their own to a heroin overdose
• Ask any family member who has lost a child or sibling from cannabis-related suicide.
• Ask any police officer who has had to report this to the parent or grandparent
• Ask any medical practitioner about having to deal in the emergency department of a hospital about the increasing incidence  psychotic episodes from young people on ‘Ice’.
• Ask any police worker who has had to take on the job of dismantling a Meth lab and clean up the filthy, toxic site …. and ask them about the condition in which  they have found the babies and small children at these sites

In Australia, ‘Ice’ or methamphetamine and ecstasy are a clear and present danger – with a conservative 1 in 10 people having tried these drugs and where, according to the Federal Police ‘clandestine laboratory seizures have risen from 58 in 1996-97 to 381 in 2004 05.

Surely, upon reflection, even people of Mr Duffy’s ilk would concede, that the use of heroin and other illicit drugs is hardly a safe way for anyone to have fun!