Failing drug policies
Re: "Record billion meth pills seized in East, SE Asia last year: UN" (BP, May 30).
If the fact that surging supplies of methamphetamine pills "has sent street prices in Thailand and Malaysia crashing to all-time lows" is not further solid proof of the absolute failure of drug policies, that have for many decades failed absolutely to reduce drug use or drug harm, then what is it?
The criminal gangs, meanwhile, are plainly happy with the prevailing policy of willfully repeating known failures.
And the Joe Ferraris snugly entrenched as poster boys of law enforcement, at least until inconvenient videos are rudely made public, are keen supporters of the status quo for obvious reasons.
FELIX QUI
Letters flowing in
Re: "Bad choices", (PostBag, May 30).
Regular readers of PostBag will know that I'm one of those bewildered by Eric Bahrt's over-exposure in this forum.
Not only is it that he repeats ad nauseam the same old, tired inanities, often hooking them onto some totally unconnected topic, but that he remains smugly resolute that his critics never actually manage to refute his twaddle.
A PostBag contributor once suggested that if Eric Bahrt didn't exist, the editor would have to invent him to keep the letters flowing in. Personally, I'm convinced that if Eric had the poor luck to lose his typing fingers they would grow again spontaneously ... and he would put such good fortune down to his meat-free diet.
RAY BAN
Out of proportion
Re: "Tobacco's environmental threat", (Opinion, May 31).
The article notes that 81,000 Thais die every year as a result of tobacco. By contrast under 30,000 Thais have "died" from Covid-19 in the last two years. (I use quotation marks because many of the people who "died" from Covid actually died from other causes.)
The article also notes that the tobacco industry (like the meat industry) is having a devastating effect on our environment and worsens the problem of climate change.
Make no mistake, I never said that Covid-19 isn't a serious problem. What I have said is that it has been blown way out of proportion with "solutions" that are a thousand times worse than the virus itself.
Yet the two biggest health and environmental threats in the world are the meat industry and the tobacco industry and virtually nothing is done about either. The media and "health" organisations create hysteria where it's unjustified and do virtually nothing about health and environmental threats that we really should be very worried about.
ERIC BAHRT
Are masks harmful?
Re: "Plastic lungs", (PostBag, May 27).
I want to thank Michael Setter for informing me that masks are actually harmful to our health. I didn't know that.
Next time I'm being wheeled into surgery, I'll be sure to inform the doctors and nurses that I read on the internet -- they shouldn't be wearing those dangerous masks. Masks not only fail to stop the transmission of respiratory viruses but are actually harmful to our health, releasing micro and nano plastics into our lungs that will create a future pandemic of plastic lung disease.
LARRY LINDSEY
