TO reinforce my conviction that most of us can manage to live for around 70-odd years without having the slightest clue what is going on, I came across a recent article in a newspaper.

A survey carried out by the Child Accident Prevention Trust discovered that more mothers are worried about their child dying from drugs than being killed in accidents on the roads and elsewhere.

Each year 570 children die in accidents while their mothers worried about things less likely to kill their offspring.

Meningitis is the biggest worry, despite the fact that the risk of dying from the disease is five times less than accidents.

It is obvious that our brainless national tabloid media is to blame for much of this misplaced anxiety.

When children contract fatal meningitis, tabloid reporters are climbing all over the corpse like maggots in search of 'killer bug' stories.

If the same child had been cruelly mown down by a car, unless there was something unusual about the accident such as the car was being driven by Prince William, Chris Evans or Bimbo Spice, then it becomes a non-event.

Because they are so common, fatal road accidents are not sexy enough to excite the media.

Such a position is truly regrettable. If our broadcast and print media mounted a wholesale publicity assault to raise our awareness of the constant carnage on our roads something effective may be done about it, resulting in far fewer deaths and serious injuries.

But as it is, our children are being mown down around us while we all worry about protecting them from the far more tabloid-friendly 'killer bugs.'

I fear that such a state of affairs will persist as long as we continue to buy tabloid newspapers.

As for worrying about drugs, we have not only the newspapers to blame for our misconception of the threat they pose to civilised society, but also the hundreds of thousands of Goverment employees whose well-paid livelihoods give them a vested interest to exaggerate the risks.

We are led to believe that unless we pour billions and billions of pounds every year into fighting the 'drugs menace' all our children will be fatally addicted within a week. This is obvious rubbish.

Our drugs 'Tsar' Keith Hellawell, according to a newspaper report, once equated the threat of drugs to young people as equal to the dangers of an 'armed conflict.'

Such absurd and irresponsible comparisons do nothing but frighten people into a disproportionate emotional and financial response.

Personally, I would hate my children to use illegal drugs ever, but given the choice I would rather have them misuse an illegal substance than be crushed under the wheels of a speeding car. I would much rather have the Government spend money making our roads and homes safer, than ploughing useless billions into fighting a drugs demon which exists mainly in society's imagination.

If we spent one tenth of our national yearly 'anti-drugs' budget on an anti-road accident and home accident budget we could cut child death rates by a significant proportion.

Despite all the money spent on police and customs anti-smuggling operations, anti-drug education strategies, rehabilitation programmes for junkies, free needle exchanges and all the rest of the paraphernalia, just how much has been achieved over the last 30 years?

Have there been any less deaths from drugs than in the past? Will there come a point when all drugs will be banished from society? If billions of pounds had not been spent would we all be dead junkies now? How much would crime reduce if all drugs were made legal, cheap and available on prescription? If there is still a drugs problem in three year's time, will the drugs Tsar get the sack?

Because such questions can never be answered - apart from the last one and I give you three guesses - anti-drug professionals, including doctors, police, lawyers, probation officers, judges, politicians and social workers can continue to hoodwink us all into believing that if we did not give them a good living at the taxpayers' expense, the Devil will come and steal our children.

If one soberly examines the quantifiable risks to our offspring instead of succumbing to national hysteria, it appears that Mr Hellawell could be more gainfully employed as a school crossing patrolman.

l The views expressed in this column are those of the writer and do not reflect that of the newspaper as a whole.

To comment on anything written in the Lancashire Loudmouth, write to the Editor, Wharfedale Newspapers, 9 Orchard Gate, Otley, LS21 3NX.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.