SIR, No Gazette reader can have failed to be shocked by the heart-rending pictures of 21-year-old heroin addict Rachael Whitear's corpse which had lain for three days in a bedsit after a fatal heroin overdose.

If ever an image screamed out that drug use was neither 'cool' or acceptable then this was it.

Yet, despite the sickening reality of drug use, the North West's lone Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies and a vocal section of his party still argue that the drugs which killed Rachael Whitear should be made legal on the streets of South Lakeland.

We live in a society where people are increasingly conscious of what is healthy for our bodies and what is not.

We know that drugs make it almost impossible for people to function like normal human beings.

We know that drugs do tremendous physical and psychological damage.

Mr Davies and his Liberal Democrat supporters profess to be concerned about clean air, clean water and other environmental issues but at the same time they show their distinct lack of concern about a clean body, a clean mind and having a free will - all things that drugs take from people.

I would urge Chris Davies and his Liberal Democrat supporters to take a good long look at the heart-breaking pictures of Rachael Whitear and listen to the words of her shattered parents.

Perhaps then they will question the wisdom of their obsession with legalised drugs.

I won't be holding my breath.

Elizabeth Graham

Windermere