“Very simply, an addict is a man or woman whose life is controlled by drugs. They are people in the grip of a continuing and progressing illness whose end is always the same. Jails, institutions and death.”

I disagree with what Valerie Borg write in her letter, European cities against drugs (TMID, 14 June). An addict is a man or woman who allowed him/herself to fall under the control of drugs.

Let us not continue playing this game wherein we try to picture drug addicts as if they are the victims. It is society which is the victim. A drug addict has let himself become one. A drug addict does not become one overnight… it takes time and will to be a drug addict. Then, with time and after the wilful option of becoming one, yes, one becomes a drug addict, unable to rise up again if without help.

And that is where the welfare state comes in, I suppose.

But I repeat, a drug addict wants to become one in the first place.

We mustn’t put such a social burden on the same par as a mental patient who, through no fault of his/her own, ends up thus. There is no wilful decision to opt to become a mental patient, I assure Ms Borg. Hence, her assertions that a drug addict and a mental patient should be treated with the same gloves, are soundless.

Franco Farrugia

Guardamangia