LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Cannabis campaign

AS A mature student psychiatric nurse in the Seventies my studies were
enhanced by hashish. And I gained the hospital's student prize. Both my
wife and I have hip arthritis and appreciate a regular intake of the plant
to eliminate spasm.

John Walsh, RMN, Address withheld

I AM 52 and married with two grownup children. In 1979 I was diagnosed
with arthritis and told I'd be in a wheelchair within eight years. I was
prescribed drugs which were worse than the disease. After seven years my
doctor suggested I try cannabis. I have had many doctors; the general
opinion was that if it helped I should continue. About a year ago,
everybody I knew had trouble obtaining it and I found I was supplying other
sufferers. I am now in prison and told to expect a threeyear sentence.

Roger Ridley, HM Prison Shropshire

MY SON is serving a ninemonth sentence for possession and intent to
supply. Court officials confided that as many as twothirds of those
engaged in the work of that court are regular users of cannabis.

Name and address supplied

DESPITE the claim of Graham Ball, the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 did
introduce distinctions between cannabis and narcotics, as proposed in the
Wootton Report. The Crossman Diaries notes that the Home Secretary, James
Callaghan, was outvoted in Cabinet on this issue. Callaghan introduced the
Misuse of Drugs Bill, which was reintroduced by the incoming Tory
government. This legislation did not, as claimed, increase the penalties
for possession of cannabis. It reduced the penalties by 50 per cent. A
detailed history of cannabis law reform can be found in my article, The
Wootton Retort: The Decriminalisation of Cannabis in Britain, which is on
the Internet at http:///www.drugtext.nl/articles/WRaltnet.html.

Stephen Abrams

YOU reported that the Home Secretary's brother, Ed Straw, supplied cannabis
to his friend in 1969. Ed avoided prosecution presumably because the Misuse
of Drugs Act had not been passed. My son was sentenced to one year's
imprisonment for doing the same in 1995. Does Mr Straw think it right that
thousands are now put to the same risk, or does he think they should enjoy
the same freedom that he and his brother did when young?"

Commander Mick Humphreys, RN (retd), Somerset AS A mature student
psychiatric nurse in the Seventies my studies were enhanced by hashish. And
I gained the hospital's student prize. Both my wife and I have hip
arthritis and appreciate a regular intake of the plant to eliminate spasm.

John Walsh, RMN, Address withheld

I AM 52 and married with two grownup children. In 1979 I was diagnosed
with arthritis and told I'd be in a wheelchair within eight years. I was
prescribed drugs which were worse than the disease. After seven years my
doctor suggested I try cannabis. I have had many doctors; the general
opinion was that if it helped I should continue. About a year ago,
everybody I knew had trouble obtaining it and I found I was supplying other
sufferers. I am now in prison and told to expect a threeyear sentence.

Roger Ridley, HM Prison Shropshire

MY SON is serving a ninemonth sentence for possession and intent to
supply. Court officials confided that as many as twothirds of those
engaged in the work of that court are regular users of cannabis.

Name and address supplied

DESPITE the claim of Graham Ball, the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 did
introduce distinctions between cannabis and narcotics, as proposed in the
Wootton Report. The Crossman Diaries notes that the Home Secretary, James
Callaghan, was outvoted in Cabinet on this issue. Callaghan introduced the
Misuse of Drugs Bill, which was reintroduced by the incoming Tory
government. This legislation did not, as claimed, increase the penalties
for possession of cannabis. It reduced the penalties by 50 per cent. A
detailed history of cannabis law reform can be found in my article, The
Wootton Retort: The Decriminalisation of Cannabis in Britain, which is on
the Internet at http:///www.drugtext.nl/articles/WRaltnet.html.

Stephen Abrams

YOU reported that the Home Secretary's brother, Ed Straw, supplied cannabis
to his friend in 1969. Ed avoided prosecution presumably because the Misuse
of Drugs Act had not been passed. My son was sentenced to one year's
imprisonment for doing the same in 1995. Does Mr Straw think it right that
thousands are now put to the same risk, or does he think they should enjoy
the same freedom that he and his brother did when young?"

Commander Mick Humphreys, RN (retd), Somerset