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SHOULD WE LEGALISE CANNABIS?

It's the big talking point of the day - should cannabis be legalised?

The debate has been thrust back under the spotlight by the furore
surrounding allegations that Home Secretary Jack Straw's son sold the drug
to a reporter.

Here, a father and son give their views. See if you agree with 82-year-old
Labour peer Michael Young or his journalist son Toby, 33.

YES SAYS FATHER MICHAEL YOUNG Britain is a nation divided over drug use
because the law insists on branding anyone who smokes marijuana a criminal.

This is particularly hard to accept when, as a recent survey revealed, 37
per cent of British teenagers have tried it at least once.

How can the authorities devise an effective policy on drugs when drug-users
are too scared to contribute to the debate?

How can William Straw be expected to discuss cannabis with his father when
smoking it is illegal?

The unease many adults feel about the legalisation of cannabis is due to
their fear of losing control of their children. And the reason why adults
have been losing out on this battleground is hat we've allowed ourselves to
be cast as the bogeyman.

By identifying ourselves with the repressive and illiberal law on soft
drugs, those of us who would resist this trend are seen as scolds and
killjoys, the enemies of fun.

But it is not difficult to see why older people have made their final stand
as "customs officers." Young people do seem out of the control of their
elders.

The difference with drugs is that if the youngsters become addicted they're
out of control of themselves and quite beyond the reach of other people.
They've escaped into a world of heir own.

Hence the desperate attempts of the older generation to clamp down.

I think they are bound to fail. The parallel with the US prohibition of
another drug, alcohol, is uncomfortably close. Prohibition was a wonderful
gift to racketeers. The same thing is happening again but on a colossal
scale. For every Al Copone who flourished in the twenties and thirties,
there are scores of drug barons today.

To a large extent their empires are built on the profits from the sale of
soft drugs.

However draconian the law, it shows no sign of being more effective in the
next decade than it has been for the last thirty years.

The law is impotent, and whenever a law is disregarded it brings into
disrepute the law in general.

EVEN SENIOR POLICE OFFICERS LIKE COMMANDER JOHN GRIEVE OF SCOTLAND YARD,
CALL FOR REFORM OF THE LAW. THEY RECOGNISE THAT LAW ENFORCEMENT HASN'T
STOPPED THE VIOLENCE LINKED TO DRUG CRIME. (emphasis in original)

One result of reform is that drugs made legal could be taxed as heavily as
cigarettes and the proceeds spent on education and health.

Marijuana has a number of medical benefits in its own right. And
scientific studies have yet to establish that cannabis is harmful,
particularly compared to alcohol.

But the strongest argument of all is that there can be no widespread
education about drug use and treatment of addiction until the subject is
out in the open.

And the subject cannot be out in the open as long as taking drugs is
illegal and anyone who admits to being a drug-users is liable to
prosecution.

NO SAYS HIS DRUG USERS SON TOBY

Going over my father's article, I can't quite dismiss the suspicion that he
wrote it when he was stoned.

Next time, when reflecting on these weighty matters, I suggest he fills his
pipe with tobacco.

Honestly, parents today! You can't leave them alone for five minutes
without them breaking out their stash, skinning up a joint and getting
stoned on wacky backy.

To be serious, if the people currently clamouring for the legalisation of
cannabis had smoked half as much of the stuff as I have they might well
think twice about it.

As a recovering reefer addict, I want to be protected from myself.

My father refers to alcohol as a "drug" - a favourite diversionary tactic
of the pro-legalisation lobby.

Alcohol may destroy one of your vital organs but it doesn't make you think
Stonehenge is evidence of extra-terrestrial life.

Booze has killed off some of the greatest writers of the century - F Scott
Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Malcolm Lowry - but it didn't prevent them
writing great books.

The only literature inspired by cannabis is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance.

As for the prohibition argument of course you will reduce crime if you
legalise a widespread form of criminal activity.

My father wisely only deals briefly with the so-called medical argument.
The claim that cannabis can alleviate the suffering of the sick is a
complete red herring.

In their day, laudanum, cocaine, nicotine, alcohol and LSD have all been
touted as medicine. The brother of Conservative MP Alan Clarke recently
revealed that their mother was prescribed a nasal spray of heroin and
cocaine to calm her nerves.

On the street, that particular cocktail is known as a speedball.

I just can't adjust to the shock of my father arguing in favour of
legalising a practice I've spent such a large part of my life feeling
guilty about because I thought he disapproved of it.

I AM CURRENTLY IN THROES OF TRYING TO GIVE IT UP, ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHER
DRUGS, BECAUSE I RECOGNISE WHAT A DESTRUCTIVE FORCE THEY HAVE BEEN.
(emphasis in original)

The main cost, apart from huge sums of money, is that it wastes so much
time. You do as little work as you can without jeopardising your
livelihood and spend the rest of the time taking drugs.

Friday evenings are spent getting stoned. Saturdays are spent sleeping and
recovering, then making plans to do what you did on Friday night all over
again. Sundays are just spent recovering.

People like me would find it much harder to reform if cannabis was
available in Sainsbury's and people took it openly.

My father writes that "anyone who admits to being a drug users is liable to
prosecution." Is that really true? I sincerely hope not!