LETTER OF THE DAY - GANJA AND HEALTH

The Editor, Sir,

Propaganda aside, and reduced to essentials, it matters not whether
cannabis use is harmful, or deemed immoral by some.

What matters is that a large number of citizens in free societies the world
over insist that cannabis prohibition is a failure, and produces more harm
than the drug itself could possibly do.

For example, a recent USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll indicates that 34 per cent
of Americans want marijuana prohibition ended. Even greater support is
found in other European countries and in Canada. This fact brings up an
important issue: considering generally-accepted principles of democracy, by
what right does a government refuse to accede to the demands of a large,
conscientiously dissenting minority? If a significant number of citizens
desire a change of law, yet the government refuses even to consider their
desires, we have the extremely anti-democratic situation which no small
number of writers and scholars have warned us about: the tyranny of the
majority.

After all, we surely cannot advance the idea that one-third or more of a
country's citizens are completely deluded and have no idea what they are
proposing by backing cannabis legalisation! Prohibition of cannabis forces
the minority who wish to use cannabis sensibly to abstain, or suffer severe
legal penalties whereas, if prohibition were repealed, that would not FORCE
the majority to do or suffer ANYTHING AT ALL save perhaps a wound to its
dubious moral convictions. The idea that society would suffer irreparable
harms, that "the sky would fall" if cannabis were legalised - the warning
constantly made by prohibition's propagandists - is patently absurd and
contradicted by the best scientific evidence we have on the subject.

Diversity of customs, opinions and pursuits is to be encouraged in a
society, not repressed. As Arnold Toynbee wrote,"Civilisations in decline
are consistently characterised by a tendency towards standardisation and
uniformity. Conversely, during the growth of civilisation, the tendency is
towards differentiation and diversity".

I heartily encourage Jamaica towards a rational and effective drug policy!

I am etc.,

Peter Webster
Review Editor, International Journal of Drug Policy