CANNABIS YOUR LETTERS

I HAVE been a police officer in a busy innercity area for 12 years, and I
am sick of the double standards that exist in our society.

Alcohol is a socially accepted drug, so therefore there is no outcry about
the cost of alcohol abuse to society. In my line of employment I see the
social cost of alcohol abuse, the high incidence of domestic violence, the
pub fights, the innocent people attacked by drunks, the criminal damage
caused by drunks, and the assaults on my colleagues by those influenced by
drink.

I see no such problems with cannabis. None of my colleagues has been
assaulted by anyone high on cannabis. I have not been to any pub fight due
to people high on cannabis.

I remain unconvinced of the link between cannabis and hard drugs as I find
it hard to distinguish between cannabis and tobacco. One is socially
accepted and one is not, and we are well aware of the health risks, and the
cost to the NHS of the socially accepted drug.

Personally I have never used cannabis, but I have friends and colleagues
that regularly use it, and none of them has been hooked into a drug culture.

The police do not have the resources to adequately deal with the levels of
cannabis use. Let us decriminalise it and concentrate on the real evils in
our society: hard drugs and alcohol abuse.

Police Sergeant, Name witheld