GATEWAY POLICY

There is a big difference between condoning cannabis use, and protecting
children from drugs. Decriminalisation acknowledges the social reality of
cannabis use, and frees users from the stigma of life-shattering criminal
records.

What is needed is a regulated market with age controls. Now, children have
an easier time buying cannabis than beer.

Although cannabis is relatively harmless compared to most legal drugs,
cannabis prohibition is deadly. As the most popular illicit drug, it
provides the black market contacts that introduce youth to addictive drugs
like heroin. Current drug policy is a gateway policy.

David Blunkett's reclassification of cannabis is a step in the right
direction. Hopefully, the common sense coming out of Britain will rub off
on the US.

ROBERT SHARPE

Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington DC, USA

The (unseen) driving force against medical (or unrestricted adult)
legalisation of cannabis is the fact that it can't be patented, which
precludes the need for big business to be involved. That fact makes it
commercially unattractive to the pharmaceutical, tobacco and alcohol
industries (lobbies).

MYRON VON HOLLINGSWORTH

Malvey Avenue, Fort Worth, Texas, USA