I write to answer the comments of the chairman of the Campaign to
Legalise Cannabis, as expressed in a letter to the Evening News on
September 24.

I make the following points:

*Cannabis is classified in law as a dangerous drug

* The court of appeal sentencing precedents indicate that imprisonment
is both appropriate and necessary for those who engage in the serious
crime of supplying cannabis to others.

* I agree that some people are more particularly vulnerable to the
drug than others because of psychological difficulties, but the courts
experience is that it is much more than a "tiny minority" as suggested.

* The "qualifications" of the court which are questioned by the
campaign are simply experience.

The experience of the courts, which I suspect is rather more extensive
than that of the campaign, is that people supplied with the drug
frequently resort to other forms of crime in order to fund the use of
the drug, and have their lives ruined by it.

Secondly, that it is frequetly the case that cannabis users later
become the users of harder drugs.

It seems to me that in terms of experience, the campaign is the
organisation least qualified to judge whether the public interest
requires either the prosecution or the sentencing of convicted offenders.

Judge Paul Downes
Norwich Combined Court
Bishopgate
Norwich

Checked-by: Patrick Henry