RELIGHTING CONTROVERSY OVER USE OF CANNABIS

Sir - I wish to congratulate your newspaper for publishing Kim Bielenberg's
excellent and informative article on cannabis (Features).

This is a serious issue, and one which genuinely does need to be debated.

The whole concept of 'illegal drugs' tends to create hysteria at times, so I
was particularly glad to see this article effectively demolish many of the
myths surrounding cannabis use.

Two points concerned me, however. The first was the prediction by Professor
Brendan Walsh that the law (banning possession for personal use) will
"simply fall into disuse".

Whilst I am sure that many of the people who use cannabis would be happy if
they were to feel that the gardai would not prosecute them, such a situation
would still leave the control of the supply of this substance in criminal
hands.

To my mind, the fact that criminal elements effectively control the supply
of cannabis at present is the only real danger from its use.

It puts the user at risk, because there is no control over the quality, and
there is always the danger of being offered other (genuinely dangerous)
substances when sourcing the product.

My main concern, however, concern the comments by Grainne Kenny, chairperson
for EURAD. While accepting it may have been necessary to put across both
points of view in the article, I found Ms Kenny's claims almost laughable.
Especially her claim that "All the medical evidence shows that cannabis is
harmful".

I am not for a moment suggesting that cannabis is 100pc safe, but I am sure
Mrs Kenny is as aware as I am of the numerous reports that have declared
cannabis one of the safest substances ever.

In particular I would suggest she reads the report of the US Drug
Enforcement's own law judge, Francis Young, who declared in 1988:
"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active
substances known to man."

The Lancet editorial of 14 November, 1998, concluded with the words "on the
medical evidence available, moderate indulgence in cannabis has little
ill-effect on health, and that decisions to ban or to legalise cannabis
should be based on other considerations".

Sadly, I find that many of the people who suggest we "Just Say No" to drugs
are addicted to misinformation.

Martin Cooke, Drumkeerin, Co Leitrim