EVIL HABIT

Thank you, The West Australian, for the front-page report about doctors
wanting tougher laws on cannabis use (Doctors demand tougher drug laws,
2/2). It was music to my ears.

There will always be fools out there who think puffing on cannabis is in no
way harmful. This is because they have reduced brain cell functions as a
result. You can't tell them.

There is a culture with the parents of kids who have secret smokes and bongs
in their rooms or grow plants, that it is dandy. Of course, if you have
grown up with a mentally ill mother and know what that does to a person, you
instil the fear of God into your own children in regardes even to looking at
a cannabis cigarette.

My three children know that because their maternal grandmother had
schizophrenia, they may be predisposed to becoming like my mother was (she
died in her 50s as a result of the mental illnes) if they ever are foolish
enough to start smoking cannabis.

In a way we are lucky we know this is in my family. Other's don't. Kids who
are found to be smoking cannabis should not be given the option of going to
a seminar. They should be made to, and it should be run by the police. As
for people selling cannabis, lock them up and throw away the key.

M. Simms,

Ballajura