LEGAL CANNABIS MAY EASE CRISIS

Sir -- The rules have changed, the game is still the same. Reviewing
our drug policy is no longer a battle between drug users and
politicians. Ireland's cocaine problem is expensive, and costly in
terms of the lives of young, healthy, intelligent people.

Up until now, legalisation of marijuana wasn't a very important issue.
It wasn't bothering a significant portion of the population. Organised
crime was confined to ganglands, hard drugs were very much in the
background, our drug policy wasn't on anyone's agenda.

Now we must ask the question, do we want to continue to introduce our
children to drug dealers who sell cocaine through the vehicle of
marijuana, a drug dwarfed by the harmful effects of both our legal and
illegal drugs, or can we, as a country, finally face the prejudices we
have maintained against cannabis and cannabis users?

Besides nipping the growth of hard drugs in the bud, benefits include
crippling organised crime, unclogging the court system and opening up
the doors for medicinal marijuana. That's not counting the
unbelievable number of uses of the hemp plant (food, fuel, paper,
clothing and sealing resin).

Legalisation doesn't have to be like the Netherlands. Consider a
policy similar to Spain where marijuana can be grown and consumed in
the privacy of one's home, but it cannot be bought or sold. Hard drug
usage in these countries are among the lowest in Europe.

Barry Coughlan,

Renmore, Galway