IS IMPORTING CANNABIS FOUR TIMES AS SEVERE AS RAPE? THE PENALTY IS.

Sir: Charles Kennedy, the new Liberal Democrat leader, should be
congratulated for having the courage to speak out against the current war
on drugs stance favoured by the Government and Opposition (report, 16 August).

We live in a society where people are imprisoned for easing their arthritic
pain with cannabis, and where importing cannabis is seen as a crime that
justifies a sentence four times as severe as rape. All this for a substance
that has been proven to be less harmful to health than alcohol and tobacco.

B P WHITE
Chadderton,
Greater Manchester