CANNABIS: THE REAL ISSUE

DAVID McMEECHAN (Think again on the Cannabis Bill, 7/4) exhibits all the
problems of looking through rose-coloured spectacles and not at the true
issues of the Bill. Bob Kucera is a courageous minister who has spent his
life dealing with drugs and its related social problems, but then again
it's better to target the person than to deal with the issue.

The Drug Summit concluded that it would be better to decriminalise cannabis
and use the resources to better fund education and target the real
criminals behind drugs than on first-time or social users. The drugs war
has relied on criminalising rather than solving the issue and a radical
rethink is required or we, as a society, will face only more of the same.

Mr McMeechan selectively quoted Jimmy Carter's wife to justify his
opposition to the Bill. This is what Jimmy Carter had to say: "Penalties
against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than use of
the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against
possession of marijuana in private for personal use." August 2, 1977.

GARY KEENAN, Mt Hawthorn.