PROHIBITION FAILS ON CANNABIS USE

LAST month the New Zealand parliamentary health select committee report into
cannabis repeated the findings of the recent Canadian Senate committee and
House of Lords select committee and virtually every other major study since
Britain's Indian Hemp Drugs Commission in 1893.

They found that moderate adult use carries a very low risk of harm but heavy
chronic and under-age use is associated with minor health problems; a harm
minimisation strategy is the most effective way of addressing public health
issues; the aim of legislation should be to prevent under-age use, not to
criminalise non-problematic adult use; and finally that prohibition is not
reducing cannabis use or abuse but causes problems including an illegal
market and exposing users to hard drugs.

Australia is bound to the United Nations narcotic treaties, but they too are
now under heavy criticism and will likely be amended in 2008.

The proposed Cannabis Control Bill here in WA is a definite step in the
right direction but does not attempt to address the real problem:
unregulated, commercial cultivation and supply.

NIALL YOUNG,

Mt Lawley