Bob Vincent, Restore the drug clinics (Oxford Mail, June 2) might be interested to know that, after a number of trial runs, the Government in Germany is giving free heroin to long-term addicts.

It has found that the crime rate has been significantly reduced. It has put addicts into the care of medical experts and has helped deglamorise the lifestyle.

If this approach were adopted more generally, we would have a situation where heroin supply was state controlled, the market factor diminished to zero, and the profitability of addiction on which criminals thrive would be wiped out.

It would also mean that whole countries would be buying supplies from Afghan farmers and, if they offered a better deal, could wipe out that end of the market as well.

Another thing that should be considered is the decriminalisation of coca, the crop that is processed to produce cocaine. It seems absurd that a whole cereal crop is criminalised because a minority of criminals use one tiny enzyme from it to create chaos.

Coca has been used as a remedy for altitude sickness and to make bread and a host of other commodities, with no observable harm.

The creation of a coca market would provide a legitimate outlay for the crops and would do much to ease the exploitation of peasant farmers in Columbia and Bolivia. It is also, unlike cocaine, a 'natural'.

The only real answer to the drugs situation is economic. One can either flood the market with cheap drugs to make it unprofitable, or one can tackle the root causes. The latter seems to me to be most sensible.

ALAN PAGE Iffley Road Oxford