22/11/2007 00:00:00
Letter: Out of joint (1)
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Aled Jones writes that "cannabis is the kiss of death for any society".
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/readersletters/display.var.1842577.0.drug_is_lethal.php
It's strange, then, since cannabis has been widely used for thousands of
years around the globe, that human society not just survived, but
thrived until the disaster of prohibition came along.
Since the 1960s, more than one million people in Britain have been given
criminal records and punished for cannabis offences - most of whom
certainly did no harm to anyone else.
A policy such as prohibition turns one section of society against
another, wastes billions of pounds of taxpayers' money and police time,
does far more harm than good, and has created many of the problems
surrounding cannabis use today.
If cannabis is legalised it will be safer for everyone - irrespective of
how safe or dangerous per se is its use.
As for Aled's claim that "cannabis actually contains 50 per cent more
cancer-causing carcinogens than tobacco - making it one very mean drug",
it's meaningless.
Almost everything we eat contains carcinogens, but that does not mean
that the food causes cancer, because the chemicals exist in combination
with others. And in any case that would be no reason to punish
individual users who do no harm to others.
If there is no victim, then there should be no crime.
Alun Buffry, Norwich.
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/readersletters/display.var.1852429.0.out_of_joint.php
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13025
Author:
York Press via UKCIA
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