TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL GREATER THREAT THAN CANNABIS

IT IS IRONIC that Michael Groffman (14.2.01) begins his letter by
praising Hutt Valley schools for "cracking down on the drug scene . .
. in the school yard" and ends it by lamenting the "qualities of life
that our children are acquiring as a result of education". Surely it
is obvious that if teachers are pre-occupied policing the cannabis
problem, which they now perceive as being epidemic, then their
performance as educators will be adversely affected.

The evidence shows both tobacco and alcohol use to be far more
prevalent among school pupils than cannabis use. The evidence also
shows tobacco and alcohol use to be a much bigger threat to the health
and well-being of school pupils than cannabis use. Despite these
facts, however, schools take an extremely hard-line on cannabis use
while being more tolerant of the use of highly-addictive tobacco and
problematic alcohol. In 1840, Abraham Lincoln said "Prohibition makes
a crime out of things that are not crimes". The preponderance of
evidence on cannabis use and its prohibition proves him right.

J. Kearney, Dalmore

[Abridged. - Ed.]

[above note by the newspaper editor]