OUT OF JOINT

Aled Jones writes that "cannabis is the kiss of death for any
society".

It's strange, then, since cannabis has been widely used for thousands
of years around the globe, that human society not just survived, but
thrived until the disaster of prohibition came along.

Since the 1960s, more than one million people in Britain have been
given criminal records and punished for cannabis offences - most of
whom certainly did no harm to anyone else.

A policy such as prohibition turns one section of society against
another, wastes billions of pounds of taxpayers' money and police
time, does far more harm than good, and has created many of the
problems surrounding cannabis use today.

If cannabis is legalised it will be safer for everyone - irrespective
of how safe or dangerous per se is its use.

As for Aled's claim that "cannabis actually contains 50 per cent more
cancer-causing carcinogens than tobacco - making it one very mean
drug", it's meaningless.

Almost everything we eat contains carcinogens, but that does not mean
that the food causes cancer, because the chemicals exist in
combination with others. And in any case that would be no reason to
punish individual users who do no harm to others.

If there is no victim, then there should be no crime.

Alun Buffry, Norwich