NO EVIDENCE FOR GATEWAY TO HARD DRUGS THEORY

THE BIG ISSUE

Urgent Need For An Objective Study Of The Potential Medical Uses Of
Cannabis

MISLEADING
The subheading to the Rev Bill Wallace's article, "A malaise at the heart
of the nation" (23 May), read: "Kirk would like to see more use made of
diversion schemes for cannabis addicts". I find this allusion to cannabis
"addicts" extremely disturbing and misleading for no study throughout the
world has found evidence of cannabis to be addictive.

Not all cannabis users are immature and irresponsible social deviants. I
am a multiple sclerosis sufferer, and I have found that the smoking of
cannabis is the only means of arresting the progress of the disease and
alleviating the symptomatic spasms. It also aids bladder control,
regulates sleep, and eases the depression consequent of the disease.

Before the general election, I seem to recall the Prime Minister, Tony
Blair, saying that his party "would govern for all the people". If he
intends to govern for people like myself, he must agree to a Royal
Commission and, hopefully, initiate an openminded, objective scientific
study to be carried out regarding the potential medical uses of cannabis.

Furthermore, cannabis is seen as a "gateway" drug, leading to the use of
harder more toxic substances. But, surely, if the laws on cannabis were
rationalised, the links between the two disparate issues would be broken.

I pray that this Government will face up to its responsibilities and
address this issue which may be crucial to my future wellbeing. Surely,
in a civilised society, people like myself have a right to expect help
from their Government, not persecution and prosecution for trying to help
themselves.

Hamish Crisp, Abbey Court, Edinburgh.
itsimth@sumteeik.demon.co.uk

COMPASSION
Congratulations to the Church of Scotland ministers who realise that
people in extreme pain should be permitted to use cannabis for relief. I
urge that they learn more about the pain suffered by all addicts, whose
lives and health are ruined by their habits. Addicts suffer a very
serious illness that deserves our compassion rather than criminalisation.

Criminalisation should be restricted to sales to minors and prisoners, who
desperately need to be drug free in order to get their lives together.
For the rest, let us depend on negative advertising, required warnings on
packaging, appropriate treatment on demand and research that may help us
develop more effective treatment programmes. We could tax sales of drugs
to help to pay for thes programmes.

Peter B. Bloch, Burning Bush Lane, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
peterbb@erols.com

NAIVE
I feel I must take issue with some of the comments made in your
editorial, "Kirk in cloudcuckooland" (20 May).

You say the new Government's position of believing that "pot
smoking can lead to harder and more harmful drugs and should therefore be
banned" is unequivocal and right. You further state that the Kirk's
position is "potty and naive". May I be so bold as to suggest that
perhaps YOU are being potty and naive? All the international research
refutes the theory that cannabis is a "gateway" or "steppingstone" drug.

In the 1970s, the Dutch decided to treat the misuse of drugs as a medical
rather than a criminal problem. Initially, they found that there was an
increase in the use of cannabis. This reduced again, so that now there
is less cannabis use than before. More importantly, the number of heroin
addicts has also decreased significantly. This seems to refute the
suggestion that cannabis is a gateway drug.

Similar effects were noticed in all the US states that liberalised their
cannabis laws in the '70's. The number of emergency room admissions for
hard drugs went down.

The fact that hard drugs users may have used cannabis first does not
mean that the cannabis led to the hard drug. We could argue that all the
hard drug users ate potatoes before they used hard drugs, but would this
mean that potatoes should be banned?

The main problem at present is that because cannabis is illegal, users
are forced to source their supplies from illegal dealers, who may well
offer other more dangerous substances for sale as well.

When will the press, and the Government, wake up to the idiocy of
prohibiting the use of a relatively harmless drug like cannabis, when
the much more dangerous drug, alcohol, is not illegal?

I applaud the Kirk for having the courage to adopt such a stance.

Martin Cooke, Corcormick, Drumkeerin, County Leitrim, Ireland.
mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie