CANNABIS LEGISLATION CANNOT BE ISOLATED FROM OTHER ISSUES

Sir, Mr Keith Hellawell is to be congratulated on his resignation in the
face of this Government's intention to decriminalise cannabis (report, July
11).

Amid the spin and the soundbites, it is a rare breed of politician or
adviser that makes a principled and personal stand against government
policy when they believe the policy to be wrong or ill-conceived.
Reclassifying cannabis to a Class C drug provides further licence to drug
dealers to ply their illegal trade.

We have an under-dressed emperor - " Mr Hellawell will be hopefully the
first of many to point out the nakedness of his policies.

Yours faithfully,

ALASTAIR TWEEDIE
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From Mr Graham Saltmarsh

Sir, As a former head of the drug squad in the Brixton area I totally
support Keith Hellawell in his reasons for resigning and his subsequent
public comments.

Few of the apologists for downgrading cannabis seem to have any knowledge
of the market-driven aspects of the drug culture. There seems to be an
assumption that both users and dealers stick to clearly delineated patterns
of one type of drug in both consumption and trafficking. It is a dangerous
fallacy.

Dealers will traffic and deal in multiple types and quantities. It isn't
only supermarkets that use multiple purchase incentives to boost their profits.

Users will be encouraged to experiment with different products and those
that do almost always end up being totally addicted to expensive hard drugs
of dubious quality. Exactly where the "retailers" want them.

"Crackpot" is the expression that comes to mind, but since when did the
current regime in the Home Office first consult with the people on the
ground before rushing through their ill-thought-out dogma?

Yours truly,

GRAHAM SALTMARSH (Metropolitan Police, 1969-99)
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From Lord Warner

Sir, Contrary to your report (July 10) I did not criticise the Home
Secretary's expected announcement on the reclassification of cannabis.

The report was correct to state that I believe it is important that the
public are made aware of the evidence about the long-term dangers to health
posed by prolonged cannabis use. However, I specifically said that this was
a separate matter from decisions about the classification of cannabis,
which is the responsibility of the Home Secretary. It is disappointing to
find my comments turned into a simplistic row about government policy.

Yesterday I made the point that cannabis use is in large part a health
issue. Today the Government announced a new education campaign, including a
fact sheet to organisations dealing with young people, endorsed by the
Youth Justice Board, explaining that cannabis would not only remain illegal
but also harmful to health. This is entirely in line with my comments that
public awareness about the potential risk to health should be raised.

Yours sincerely,

NORMAN WARNER (Chairman), Youth Justice Board
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From Mr R. M. Langton

Sir, The illogicality of the new regulations beggars belief.

The best solution to the problem would be to make cannabis freely available
through chemists and off-licences (not pubs or cafes), to tax it and pass
the proceeds to the health service and the social services for their work
in the rehabilitation of cocaine and heroin addicts.

Yours faithfully,

RICHARD LANGTON