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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Letter: Real risks from illegal cannabis use need to be recognised
Carl Wagner, Legalise Cannabis Alliance Hull Daily Mail
Monday 10 Mar 2003 'REAL RISKS FROM CANNABIS NEED TO BE RECOGNISED' - CLARITY NEEDED TO FIND DRUG ANSWER After reporting the tragic story of Valerie Parker, who has lost two children in eight years because of the unregulated drug market, the Mail quite rightly said that conventional methods of preventing drug abuse are not working (Feb 7). The question is what do we do about it? The drug problem is now distorting the whole of the law enforcement and legal system of this country. We have a duty to look at the laws we already have, look at the effect they are having on society, look at the social circumstances surrounding drug use and drug abuse, and tailor our laws accordingly, because society can no longer afford to pay the price that the current policy of prohibition is costing. For policy makers to blame drugs for the crime problem is dysfunctional denial. Prohibition causes crime. Not only does it increase the sheer volume of offences by making crimes of things that are not criminal, it increases the frequency and violence of crime. It also creates opportunities for police brutality, corruption and bribery. Being against drug taking in principle is a valid position to take, but the 'holistic' approach - pretending all drugs are equally dangerous and addictive - has resulted in immense social harm: the criminalisation of large numbers of young people, deaths as a result of lack of information and support, and alienation of many young people from authority. Cannabis use is common and socially tolerated among many young people and any drugs or crime policy in our society that ignores cannabis is ill conceived, incomplete and irresponsible. We often hear the phrase "harm reduction" in relation to cocaine and heroin users and addicts, but we seldom hear anything about harm reduction for cannabis use. Are we to assume that the Hull and East Riding Drug Action Team, despite its claims that cannabis is a dangerous substance, does not consider it important to advise cannabis users on safer use? The real risks from illegal cannabis use need to be recognised and tackled. Full legalisation would enable the laws on quality, weights etc, that already exist to be applied to cannabis, enable taxation on profits, would divorce supplies from hard drugs, allow home cultivation, allow public consumption premises (maybe coffee shops). It would protect the consumer from the type of dealer who sells dubious substances. There has never been a "drug free" society; it defies reason, and it is arrogant and totalitarian for a small, shrill special-interest group to try to impose its own version of morality on the rest of society, especially considering that prohibition itself is the cause of most drug-related harms. Carl Wagner Legalise Cannabis Alliance Victoria Square Ella Street Hull
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