Letter: Unjust cannabis law Source: The Independent (UK)
Date: January 6, 1998Author: Jack Girling
The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, says that if campaigners can show that cannabis is not a dangerous drug, then the Government may reconsider its stance on cannabis prohibition ("Straw's challenge over cannabis drugs", 5 January).
The evidence has always been there. In 1968, the UK Royal Commission, the Wootton Report, concurring with other major reports on cannabis, said that cannabis ought not to be illegal and its use did not pose unacceptable risks.
Since then other reports have concluded that cannabis is not addictive, does not lead to hard drug use, does not detrimentally affect memory or motor skills (including empirical testing of the effects on drivers), does not cause cancer or damage the lungs, and is not associated with any particular lifestyle.
Maybe the arrest of Jack Straw's son has achieved something after all. Maybe now people will wake up to the fact that this unjust and unworkable cannabis law may eventually lead to the arrest of their own sons and daughters, for using a safe plant in preference to dangerous intoxicants, a crime without a victim.
Jack Girling,, Norwich