THE big increase in drug taking and consequent deaths is a prime example of the maxim "be careful what you wish for". Your editorial ("Trainspotting generation needs our help", The Herald, July 21) rightly attributes this to people switching from alcohol to drugs after minimum pricing was introduced.

Perhaps the authorities might have been wise to note that this minimum pricing experiment has not been tried elsewhere.

James Evans, Dumbarton.

A nonsensical decision

WITH Gaelic spoken by 1.1 per cent of people over the age of three in Scotland, mostly in the Outer Hebrides, according to the 2011 census, I welcome Robin M Brown’s query if having Gaelic on ambulances, police vehicles, road signs and station names is good use of public money (Letters, July 22).

What’s the Gaelic for bonkers?

R Russell Smith, Kilbirnie.

Glasgow’s mess

ANENT the recent discussions on the lamentable state of husbandry of our city greenery (" (“Dear green disgrace … Are the parks in Glasgow turning into wild west?”, The Herald, July 17), “Glasgow is in a mess and the SNP can’t blame the Tories”, The Herald, July 20, and Letters, July 22),.I walked at the weekend along Great Western Road from Anniesland to Byres Road. What a mess, God only knows what impression visitors to our city take home with them along with the chewing-gum stuck to their shoes. This magnificent avenue once home to tobacco barons and other nobs is nothing short of a disgrace. For most of the route the pavement has been dug up and poorly resurfaced and only half of it is usable because of unrestricted overgrowth of privet hedge and adventitious shoots from the trunks of trees that line the road.

I am aware that conservationists are trying to turn the clock back by reintroducing certain species to the countryside; is returning of parks and verges to wilderness part of the same policy to make the expanding urban fox population feel more at home?

David J Crawford, Glasgow G12.

BBC disgrace

AT LAST positive noises from the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation about its future financing (BBC may 'become subscriber service'", The Herald, July 18). Quite apart from the BBC´s notoriety in recent years, the principle remains that people should not be forced to pay for a service they don't want. On their "public service" logic HMG could have us stump up for a public service newspaper; we could call it Pravda; "The Daily Truth".

Be grateful you're not in Germany, however. Here there are two public broadcasters, whose output is even worse than that of the Beeb, believe it or not. And anyone with a roof over their head is automatically deemed to be watching their trash. As I understand it, only the homeless, jailbirds and monastic orders are exempt.

George Morton, Stuttgart, Germany.

I AM in the fortunate position of being able and willing to go out and about, so when a panic-stricken letter from the TV Licensing Office came to say my direct debit for my television had been cancelled, I had no compunction in cancelling it, along with my subscription to Sky. I haven't watched either since January, so it made sense to let them both lapse.

I spend my evenings reading, real, printed, books, and I still listen to radio. That keeps my brain ticking over.

Margaret Forbes, Kilmacolm.