Source: Evening News, Norwich, UK

Pub Date: Saturday June 22 1996

Pub LTE: End hypocrisy of cannabis laws

Author: CLCIA

END HYPOCRISY OF CANNABIS LAWS.

IS IT not about time that the hypocrisy of the cannabis laws was corrected?

I can legally buy and smoke tobacco, a plant product which we all know is highly poisonous and kills hundreds of thousands each year in the UK alone. Yet if I smoke cannabis I can be arrested and prosecuted, even sent to prison for continuous offending, although cannabis has not killed anyone.

Cannabis hemp seeds are also on sale legally, yet one cannot legally grow it.

Cannabis has a multitude of medicinal properties which help sufferers of multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, anorexia, insomnia, rheumatism, labour pains and even herpes.

Yet sufferers are denied the plant and even denied the right to grow their own!

The cannabis plant has been used medicinally for centuries.

Why is this hypocrisy allowed to continue?

Is it only because of the THC content?

THC is the active ingredient which gets one high.

Getting high is frowned upon by the Government which seems intent on ignoring the medicinal uses, as well as the health problems caused by impurities in illegal cannabis and lack of any sort of quality control.

Surely the use of cannabis should be a matter of choice and not of law.

CLCIA