DANGERS OF CANNABIS

R E Stebbing (letters 25 February) echoes fashionable but misinformed
opinion by claiming that "the evidence that cannabis is non-habit-forming
and less damaging than heroin, tobacco and alcohol is now overwhelming".

The question has been pertinently addressed to the authorities in those
tropical countries where cannabis abuse has been endemic. A number of
reports from such sources, including a survey commissioned by the United
Nations, have warned the West of the dangers of a lax attitude to the
"recreational" use of cannabis (the medicinal use is an entirely separate
issue).

The drug is readily available in these countries because it grows as a
weed, but most indigenous people refuse to touch it because of its
demotivating and dispiriting effect on regular abusers is obvious.

Antony Alexander, Douglas, Isle of Man