DRUGS FACTS REFUTE OPPERMAN OPINIONS

Sir, - In his tirade on cannabis, (We can't afford to be duped in row on
dope EADT, July 12) Chris Opperman comments that the argument for
legalising the drug is purely because we have too few police officers.

I agree that we don't have enough police but that is not Why the drug
debate has arisen.

It has arisen because millions of otherwise non-criminal people feel
ostracised from our repressed society by doing something that does little
harm to anybody.

Shouldn't the "civilised society" that he hails let people smoke cannabis
in private, with no hurt to themselves or anybody else, if they so wish to?

He claims that people smoke the drug to be "trendy". This is nonsense -
people smoke it because it helps them medically, assists in creativity and
induces a relaxed feeling.

Cannabis has been proven to medically reduce the pain from cancer and help
with depression, epilepsy, AIDS pains, arthritis, spinal injuries and MS,
amongst many other illnesses and injuries.

It is impossible to.overdose on it, and new studies seem to imply that the
drug actually may reduce cancer rather than increasing the chances of
getting it.

Chris Opperman says that if we legalise cannabis, even for badly-needed
medicinal uses, people will start to take hard drugs.

There is no evidence to back this up, and scientists now know that the drug
which "opens up the door" to others is nicotine, because it suppresses the
brain's effect to the neurotransmitter dopamine, so the user needs more
stimulant just to reach the same level of pleasure.

If cannabis was legalised over UKP 5bn in tax (maybe over UKP lObn) a year
could be created, which could help this nation's public transport. crime
prevention and healthcare; possibly even reducing the l20.000-plus deaths a
year due to tobacco and over 20,000 due to alcohol, two of the most
dangerous drugs known to man.

His claims that cannabis users turn to prostitution and mugging to pay for
their joints are laughable.

It is no coincidence that. during the Euro 2000 football championships,
there were no arrests in Holland. where cannabis is sold legally. but there
were riots and hundreds of arrests in co-hosts Belgium where the staple
diet is alcohol

He comment: "Don't let anybody tell you that Cannabis is not addictive."
Well, sorry Chris, cannabis is not addictive and so say leading
scientists, the American Shafer Commission into drugs, the Institute for
the Study of Drug Dependency, the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse, and a
report by the US Institute of medicine [among others].

It interests me why you devote an entire page on your paper to someone who
states opinion as facts, though he cannot bring any evidence to hand to
substantiate his claims.

I am all for reasoned argument on both side of the debate, though most
pages of writing devoted to a subject could at least be written by somebody
with at least partial a knowledge of it.

He says that he has never "pulled on spliff" [oh, he speaks the jargon, so
he must know what he is talking about}; maybe he should, it might make him
a bit more knowledgeable on the subject.

WILLjennings80@hotmail.com