FROM TOBACCO TO CANNABIS?

British American Tobacco (BAT) uses a variant high-nicotine tobacco to keep
smokers hookes ("Tobacco's last gasp", issue 405). Details of this have
been revealed in a number of internal memos made public through lawsuits in
the US. Many of the documents are British but it has taken American court
cases to bring them to light.

The tobacco giants may yet manage to profit from addiction and keep their
share price up, but it is unlikely to be through very low-tar, virtually
smoke-free cigarettes. They are planning to exploit cannabis when the drug
is legalised.

Cigarette companies have registered a number of brand names with links to
cannabis. Philip Morris has filed a trademark application for Marley. The
name is associated with Bob Marley, the late Jamaican reggae singer. Other
companies have registered Acapulco Gold and Red Leb - red Lebanese being a
particularly potent form of cannabis.

Having hooked millions of people on nicotine, there is a danger that the
tobacco giants will encourage the development of hybrid strains of cannabis
with up to four times the psychoactive ingredients of the more common
strains. Even regular users of cannabis are warning of the dangers of these
potent variants.

Jamie Fleming Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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In many parts of North America cannabis use is socially more acceptable
than smoking cigarettes. My American friends regard me as a leper because I
smoke. They also fear the effects of passive smoking. But in a world of
instant gratification, where speed of hit is the primary virtue, the
cigarette is top of the evolutionary scale.

Eileen Steenson, Bergen, Norway.
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Among addictive behaviours, cigarette smoking is the one most likely to be
established during the early teen years. About 90 per cent of new smokers
are teenagers. Youth tobacco addiction is on the rise in southern Europe,
noteably in Greece and Italy.

It is scandalous that the European Commission spends more than $1 billion a
year subsidising European tobacco growers.

J Hindes Athens, Greece