DRIVE OUT DRUGS

NORM? The bottom line of this debate is one of freedom of choice - in
a land where I am allowed to choose whether to walk the streets late
at night, I should have the right to choose whether to smoke cannabis.

Phillips suggests that the key difference between alcohol and drugs is
that drugs are a ''marginalised and feared phenomenon''. This is
clearly false of cannabis: today's youth view a few joints as central
to their social life and, in contrast to having a few pints, they do
not feel aggressive and boisterous but pleasantly relaxed. Where
''millions of people are prepared to breach moral norms'', one wonders
whether they really are norms.

James Morris,
Cambridge