JOHN MILLER, of the Christian Democratic Party, thundered on the Letters
page (CT, 12 November) that "medicalised marijuana is the advance commando
force being mobilised to capture . . . the final objective of legalising
illicit drugs".

As any of the cancer patients who have gained relief from marijuana can
tell him, "medicalised marijuana" is nothing of the sort. The truth is that
"medicalised" marijuana is only a return to the good old days when, among
other things, Australians went to church in droves. Back then, when neither
marijuana nor heroin was against the law, there was no drug problem. Such
marijuana as there was would have eased the pain of the few who had the
bright idea of smoking it, but most people would never have heard of it
until they were told it was banned, when the sermons against it began.

The "illicit" drug which really undermines the fulminations of John Miller
and his ilk, however, is heroin. Before 1953 it was an ingredient in
Australia's most popular medicines; John Miller's parents would have
consumed it quite freely. And before 1953 there was no heroin problem.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan