HUFF AND PUFF ... BUT DON'T MAKE IT LEGAL

IN THE SEVENTIES, the Earl of Longford flew to the continent to investigate
pornography, which had been identified as anew threat to our way of life.

Now, writer Alexander Chancellor, 60, accompanied by his 73-year-old
brother John has been flown to Amsterdam by a Sabbath paper to report on a
new peril, marijuana.

Alex, who had never tried dope before, didn't care for it much, but John
found it 'quite agreeable'. They also visited a cannabis museum, which said
use of the drug was prevalent in 450 BC. I didn't know that, but it was
around during my teenage years in Fifties Aberdeen. By the time it has got
that far north, you had to smoke a pound of it before anything happened.
Presumably, its potency had been reduced to make supplies go further.

My chief memory is how easily one was amused under its influence. If, while
sharing a joint, one was thought to have held on to it too long, someone
would say: 'I sense the presence of Monsieur "Oggin Le Joint.'

This never failed to reduce everyone present to helpless tears of laughter.
Why French citizenship was conferred upon the joint hogger I'll never know.
Anyway, I and everyone I know who took it then tired of the experience.

As the Bible says: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as
a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

Should marijuana be legalised? According to an EU report quoted by Mr
Chancellor, 37.5pc of 15 to 16-year-olds in Britain have tried it compared
with 31.1pc in Holland. This suggests being illegal makes it more
attractive.

Maybe, but it also prevents some young people from trying anything more
dangerous which remains illegal.

A majority still fears that unlimited access to porn and soft drugs will
destroy our will to lead decent loves. Who can say they are wrong?