FAILURE OF CANNABIS PROHIBITION

CORONER William Armstrong is right to express worries about the link between
cannabis use and hard drugs (Evening News, November 27)

Cannabis is a common substance these days and, if truth were told, it has
been for a long time. It's very easy to get and, in many quarters, pretty
much socially acceptable.

But it is still illegal. This results in a very easy way into the drugs
sub-culture, a very easy way to step over the line of law-breaking, to break
that taboo of 'drug taking.'

We've had 30 years of attempted prohibition of cannabis, in which time many
people have had their lives ruined by the law, careers wrecked, families
destroyed.

Prohibition has failed and, in failing, it's exposed millions of young
people to the dangers of the black market drugs trade.

It isn't cannabis that leads to involvement with hard drugs, it's the law
that has created the pathway.

Derek Williams, Pembroke Road, Norwich