NOW THERE'S NO REAL CASE FOR BANNING CANNABIS

I READ with disdain the comments by Tory Coun Andrew Feather on the subject
of cannabis ("Get tough on drugs — they destroy lives and families",
"Mailbag'', February 29) and felt obliged to respond.

Why is Coun Feather so against having a debate on this subject? Could it be
that he knows that there are simply no rational arguments left to support
cannabis prohibition? After all, in an honest, open debate, Coun Feather
might have to answer difficult questions like: "Why is cannabis illegal when
it has been scientifically proven to be less harmful than.tobacco and
alcohol

Councillor Feather spouts pure propaganda whe talks about "children as young
as ten being offered cigarettes and spliffs by pushers in order to hook them
on to stronger drugs later on in life".

According to the Health Education Authority some people believe that
cannabis is a 'gateway drug' and think that cannabis users are more likely
to go on to 'harder' drugs such as heroin. There is no evidence to support
this belief. While most heroin users have used cannabis very few cannabis
users move on to use heroin.

Councillor Feather is using propaganda to deliberately mislead the public
into thinking that cannabis leads to hard drug use. By the way, kids get
cigarettes from the shop (by sending in older kids) like anyone else — or is
he suggesting we criminalise tobacco as well?

Councillor Feather also claims that "most property and vehicle crime is drug
related". He confuses the effects of drugs with the effects of drug
prohibition. Heroin dependent users should be able to obtain maintenance
doses through their doctors.

In Switzerland they recently completed a trial where they did just this and
the result was a 90 per cent reduction in crimes to fund heroin habits.
Heroin dependence should be a medical issue, not a "zero tolerance" issue.

Also there is simply no evidence whatsoever that cannabis users fund their
habits through crime. Councillor Feather uses crimes committed by heroin
dependent users to justify harsher penalties against cannabis users. Absurd.

Finally, if you wish to see the results of "zero tolerance" look to America,
where there is now the world's largest prison population, a staggering two
million. That is six times the number of inmates in the whole of the EU,
despite the EU having 100 million more residents.

The Europeans know all about "zero tolerance". The last time it was popular
was due to a certain Adolf Hitler. I rest my case.

P. WHITE