REAL RISKS FROM CANNABIS NEED TO BE RECOGNISED

Clarity Needed To Find Drug Answer

After reporting the tragic story of Valerie Parker, who has lost two
children in eight years because of the unregulated drug market, the Mail
quite rightly said that conventional methods of preventing drug abuse are
not working (Feb 7).

The question is what do we do about it?

The drug problem is now distorting the whole of the law enforcement and
legal system of this country.

We have a duty to look at the laws we already have, look at the effect they
are having on society, look at the social circumstances surrounding drug
use and drug abuse, and tailor our laws accordingly, because society can no
longer afford to pay the price that the current policy of prohibition is
costing.

For policy makers to blame drugs for the crime problem is dysfunctional denial.

Prohibition causes crime. Not only does it increase the sheer volume of
offences by making crimes of things that are not criminal, it increases the
frequency and violence of crime. It also creates opportunities for police
brutality, corruption and bribery.

Being against drug taking in principle is a valid position to take, but the
'holistic' approach - pretending all drugs are equally dangerous and
addictive - has resulted in immense social harm: the criminalisation of
large numbers of young people, deaths as a result of lack of information
and support, and alienation of many young people from authority.

Cannabis use is common and socially tolerated among many young people and
any drugs or crime policy in our society that ignores cannabis is ill
conceived, incomplete and irresponsible.

We often hear the phrase "harm reduction" in relation to cocaine and heroin
users and addicts, but we seldom hear anything about harm reduction for
cannabis use. Are we to assume that the Hull and East Riding Drug Action
Team, despite its claims that cannabis is a dangerous substance, does not
consider it important to advise cannabis users on safer use?

The real risks from illegal cannabis use need to be recognised and tackled.

Full legalisation would enable the laws on quality, weights etc, that
already exist to be applied to cannabis, enable taxation on profits, would
divorce supplies from hard drugs, allow home cultivation, allow public
consumption premises (maybe coffee shops). It would protect the consumer
from the type of dealer who sells dubious substances.

There has never been a "drug free" society; it defies reason, and it is
arrogant and totalitarian for a small, shrill special-interest group to try
to impose its own version of morality on the rest of society, especially
considering that prohibition itself is the cause of most drug-related harms.

Carl Wagner Legalise Cannabis Alliance