LET'S FOCUS ON REAL DRUG PROBLEM

WE clearly haven't heard the last of the granny from the Legalise
Cannabis Alliance who recently appeared before Carlisle Crown Court
on a charge of growing the drug in her cottage.

Patricia Tabram is now planning to lead a protest in London
supporting the right of people to use cannabis for health reasons.

Mrs Tabram has allegedly supplied cannabis to elderly and sick people
in cakes, casseroles and curries.

She claims the drug is more effective and less harmful than many of
the prescription drugs which the medical profession doles out.

Maybe it's time we stopped hauling people like the 68-year-old
grandmother before the courts and had a sensible debate to sort out
the whole drugs issue.

Proper evidence is required to show whether cannabis truly is useful
in the treatment of illnesses such as depression and multiple sclerosis.

If it is proven, then it should be properly available and not sourced
from the kitchen of some elderly lady's home.

I don't think anyone disputes the fact that we have a huge drugs
problem in this country.

One leading Sunday newspaper only recently devoted the whole of its
front page to the cannabis debate along with an apology for its
previous campaign to decriminalise the drug.

There is now evidence of the damaging effects of stronger versions of
cannabis on the mental health of users.

I don't speak from any position of knowledge here.

Like many of those who were in their teens in the Sixties, somehow I
missed out on all the free love and drugs.

Unlike certain prominent politicians, I can categorically say I have
never smoked cannabis. Perhaps I ought to have done when I had the
chance, but I was too lily-livered and sensible.

But I do think it's high time this country got its act together and
serious decisions were considered on whether we need tougher
enforcement or decriminalisation.

You can't blame the police, they administer the law as it stands, not
as some wish it to be.

The issues are confused, but the ramifications of our drug culture
are too serious to ignore. Taking people like Mrs Tabram to court is
just a sideshow to the real problem.