Nuclear weapons and drugs

Press, 26 November 1980, Page 24

Nuclear weapons and drugs

Sir, — Like Patrick Neary and John D. Grocott, 1 too wish children the opportunity of growing up in an environment free from threat. Having visited Hiroshima I am aware of the. destructive power of nuclear weapons. There is, a contrast though between the imagined disasters these correspondents project themselves into and the real disaster of alcohol which takes its daily toll of

young lives. As to the elimi- «» nation of nuclear weapons it is, as successive United States Presidents have been aware, a case of taking two to tango. For the West to relinquish to the Soviet Union sole possession of. such weapons would do nothing to dispose of the threat. On the home front, therefore, the anti-nuclear people would be much more effective in improving the environment by taking action to combat the pressure on children to follow the widespread adult ex- ,> ample of drug taking, particularly of alcohol. — Yours, etc.,

D. A. CARTER. November 24, 1980.