CANNABIS - HEALTH ISSUE, NOT LAW

Sirs,

In your short article "Warning over cannabis" (21 March) you say that claims
from the Glasgow Royal Infirmary that "Three or four joints of cannabis a
day are as bad for your lungs as a packet of cigarettes" are a "blow to the
campaign to legalise the drug."

The campaign to legalise cannabis is about changing the law and is not based
on the safety of smoking cannabis but on the fact that the law makes matters
far worse. Under prohibition people often buy cannabis of dubious quality
and the impurities present may cause far more harm than cannabis itself.

We know that alcohol, tobacco and many other drugs are damaging to the
health and the cause of premature deaths of millions. The difference is
that people know what they are consuming, thanks to the legality of those
drugs and the controls on quality.

Furthermore, why should cannabis users be punished at all? If they get ill,
surely they need health. If not, then they need protection. That can only be
provided once cannabis is legal again and the remnants of "Reefer Madness"
propaganda destroyed.

The present prohibition is the result of far more stress and damage to
health than any amount of cannabis could be. That is why we want it
legalised. It should be a matter of choice and of health, not law.

Sincerely, Alun Buffry, Legalise Cannabis Alliance http://www.lca-uk.org