Letters to the Editor

Why Cannabis must be legalised now

Sir

In a 'name and address supplied' letter which you published on October 23,
(Legalising 'pot' a dangerous move) the writer tells of his/her taking LSD
after cannabis, in an argument against the legalisation of the latter.

Now it is time to consider the plain truth. It is an indisputable fact that
some people take cannabis and later take hard drugs, as it is that some
people use water pistols and later become armed robbers. But that is no
reason to punish cannabis users any more than it would be a reason to
punish children with water pistols; neither are hurting anyone, not even
themselves.

The truth is it is people who lead other people to do things; in a society
where drugs are prohibited and often all available from he same place, it
is not unusual for the dealer to wish to boost illegal profits by
introducing other substances. That is the 'fault' of the dealer and the
law, not of the cannabis plant itself.

Cannabis has been proclaimed safe by everybody from the Lancet to the
American DEA judge Young, from Professor Lester Grinspoon of Harvard
University to the UK's own 1968 Wooton Report.

So why this continued pretence that its prohibition is to protect people

The truth is that the continued illegality of cannabis enables huge profits
to be made by the companies making synthetic and polluting alternatives to
the many uses of the plant fuel, relaxant, medicine, fibre, paper,
furniture, etc. If cannabis is ever legalised, many profits may fall.

It is high time that investigative journalists examined the details of
events leading up to the inclusion of cannabis in the Opiates Convention in
1925 and subsequent prohibition.

Alun Buffry, B.Sc., Peacock Street, Norwich, Norfolk NR3