Scotland needs to tackle the cultural attitudes that lead to addiction

It was a beautiful, sunny spring afternoon and the many surrounding trees were coming into leaf. Yet, their mind-sets prevented them from seeing and appreciating any of that, or apparently having any kind of optimism whatsoever - a sad situation at around age 15.

Yesterday, on the Royal Mile, two children who must have been about eight and 12 attempted to persuade me to take a five-pound-note and go in to buy vaping fluid on their behalf. Needless to say, I refused.

It strikes that the high levels of addiction in Scotland are the result of deeply ingrained social and cultural attitudes which the SNP Scottish government has wilfully neglected to confront, preferring to seek to benefit politically from the idea that everything wrong in Scotland is the fault of the "Tories in Westminster” and that things can’t and won’t get better until independence happens.

Alongside, an anti-aspirational culture has developed which is “agin” middle-class status and apparently associates bourgeois aspiration only with Thatcherite values. Unfortunately, this has affected the thinking of public officials and sections of the intelligentsia too. From Trainspotting onwards, a body of popular fiction has apparently made aimlessness and addiction seem a lifestyle choice, rather than something to be avoided. The outcome, unsurprisingly, is a cycle of downward-aspiration which leads too many Scots to early graves. The worthy aim of equality has too often meant reducing expectations, resulting in the median being too low.

Th SNP say that they aim for Scotland to be more like Denmark. I’m half Danish and suggest a closer look to see how profoundly different the socio-cultural attitudes there are from what is endemic in large tracts of central Scotland. The situation in Scotland will only change once a fundamental cultural re-orientation with regard to education and aspiration occurs.

Professor Bruce Peter, Edinburgh

Legalisation best way forward on drugs

I wonder if it ever crosses Brian Patterson’s mind that Scotland’s drug problem may not be accidental but is a deliberate construct and that drug addiction is just part of the Establishment’s plan to keep the nation docile.

Looked at objectively we have a series of compounds that are widely used by the global general public and which generate at least 1% of global GDP that disappears into the black economy. If these drugs were not deemed illegal by the Establishment their effects could be mitigated just as is the case with alcohol and tobacco and the current futile expensive involvement of law enforcement in their prohibition terminated.

One has to ask in light of the failed attempt to control the production and consumption of cannabis, cocaine, crystal meth and any other drug that Joe Public wants to use, why the drugs and their system of production and distribution isn’t simply legalised. The tax revenue that would be generated from legally acquired quality-controlled products could be used to help treat recovering addicts just as we currently do with alcohol and tobacco.

We should be asking ourselves why the Establishment doesn’t accept the logical inevitable solution. Meanwhile we concentrate on the drug addiction and its death-rate rather than the dire social environment created and perpetuated by the same Establishment that is associated with much of the abuse of illegal substances.

David J Crawford, Glasgow

Launch a new effort on climate change

Whatever else is said about Elon Musk’s rocket, it is not space exploration we want to be spending money on, it is saving the planet from global warming.

We are told that the Earth should carry on under our sun for billions of years, and when it is in its final death throws we may then be in a position to recolonize another planet. However, it doesn’t need a genius to work out that if we carry on like we are, the planet, which is already in dire straits, is unlikely to be able to support the human population for much longer certainly not for centuries to come yet alone millions of years.

It may be pie in the sky, but the only way I can see we would be able to counter global warming would be by spending what we spend on space exploration and yes, the entire defence budget of all countries on global warming issues.

I used to read science fiction and in an Asimov novel, I think it was, friendly peaceful aliens visited Earth to engage with us , but when they discovered that we were continually plagued by wars and world wars they left PDQ. What is wrong with us? Can we never get real?

Iain Stewart, Cumbernauld

Marvin the Martian was spot on

For those of us a bit older we might remember Marvin the Martian asking "Where's the kaboom?" He didn't say "There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering rapid unscheduled disassembly!"

Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia

Much Ado About the SNP

Now that Bill Shakespeare has joined the debate on SNP travails, courtesy of Andrew McLuskey (April 21), may I suggest that Government response to date would appear to be “Much Ado About Nothing”.

R Russell Smith, Largs,

Ditch the phone for a happy day

Having read Herald letters today from Thelma Edwards and Keith Swinley on reasons to be cheerful, I note that none of the examples cited mention the modern day gadgets to which so many of us are addicted. Instead, simple life-affirming activities and observations are reminders of the fundamental beauty of our world. Would that we could take time each day to be aware of the goodness all around us. These two letters certainly brightened my day. Thank you.

John O'Kane, Glasgow

Remember: the sun is shining

Anent the correspondence about reasons to be cheerful, I came

across a quotation from Ian Fleming: " I think you will find that the sun is always shining in my books - a state of affairs which minutely lifts the spirit of the reader." Thelma Edwards' letters are also to be commended in this context.

David Miller, Milngavie