CANNABIS: THE PARENTS' VIEW

IN YOUR article on cannabis law enforcement (The Post, May 31) you quote
the case of a 26-year-old man. That young man is our son, and we have read
his many letters to your newspaper on the subject of cannabis law.

While he was expelled from boarding school for growing two "tiny" plants,
as far as we are aware there was no conviction entered on his record at
that time.

The conviction happened early last year, after his arrest for cultivation
and possession late the previous year (1999), and in fact we found out
about his arrest by reading of it in your columns at the time of his court
appearance.

The article states that the event estranged him from his family. As his
parents, we are surprised to learn that he was and has been estranged from us.

It is true that he was quite distant from us last year, but we have always
been and always will be available for him.

Likewise, his grandparents remain completely open to him. However, that
availability and acceptance of him as a person does not mean that we
condone his usage of cannabis.

He states that keeping him in school and providing better education on
cannabis would have been more productive for him. As far as we are aware,
he was expelled from Nelson College midway through the 6th form, but this
did not mean the end of his secondary schooling. It just meant that he was
at a different school, and completed 7th form on schedule at the end of the
following year, gaining University Entrance.

We tried to provide some educational material on cannabis (a booklet
compiled by the New Zealand Police Association plus other material), but as
it did not necessarily support usage, he chose not to read it.

At no time did we believe that he was using, as he says "God knows what".
We could simply see the terribly detrimental effect that cannabis had on
our son.

BARRY KNIGHT and ANNA KERR

Eastbourne