Source: Evening News, Norwich

Pub Date: Dec 15 1997

Pub LTE: I think cannabis should be legalised because...

Author: Melissa Dawson, aged 16

I THINK CANNABIS SHOULD BE LEGALISED BECAUSE...

I think cannabis should be legalised because I do not think that people should be punished for taking it - whether as a recreational relaxant, a sacrament, or as a vital relief from what can be incurable ailments. Hundreds of millions of pounds a year of taxpayers' money is being spent on punishing people for committing a victimless crime. All this results in is intolerably overcrowded prisons and the alienation from society of countless, otherwise law-abiding, citizens.

The problems normally attributed to cannabis use, such as the 'gateway theory' (that suggests it leads to hard drugs) and that people steal to obtain cannabis are both, ironically, caused by prohibition. If it were legalised people wouldn't purchase it is places where illegal hard drugs could be offered to them. Also, it would significantly reduce the amount of people stealing to obtain cannabis as they could grow their own.

You must remember that cannabis is only a plant. Ingesting it is safer than most garden plants. Why are they not illegal?

The Government apparently has motives for prohibiting a plant that can grow without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers and replace cotton which does require pesticides, can be used as a fuel to replace petrol, would effect the sale of alcohol and tobacco if made legal, although millions of intelligent and healthy adults enjoy using regularly.

Whilst people are not allowed to make informed decisions about what they put into their bodies, they are forced to buy cannabis on the illegal market, pushing the profits into the hands of gangsters and meaning that consumers of this substance would have to take things they would not wish - such as barbiturates and plastic (impurities), because their supply of this God-given plant is not pure.

Melissa Dawson

(aged 16)