|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
Letter: Morally untenable
Leo Enticknap York Press
Tuesday 27 Jun 2006 AS someone naturally inclined to vote Conservative, I never thought I'd be writing to this paper in support of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance (Readers' Letters, June 24). But I am, because I agree wholeheartedly with Steve Clements's point that it's morally untenable (as distinct from politically expedient, which is why they're doing it) for the Government to impose increasingly severe restrictions on the consumption of tobacco, without banning it outright. Tobacco smoking is one of those very rare examples of a dangerous activity imposing immediate danger on innocent third parties, thereby justifying the removal of the civil liberty to do it. You can't get cirrhosis of the liver by keeping me company while I drink myself under the table. But you do significantly increase the chances of getting lung cancer by keeping me company while I smoke a pack of 20. In many situations, family, social and professional pressures make it difficult to put yourself out of harm's way without causing offence. If smoking was outlawed tomorrow, the damage it causes would go with it. But that would be a big short-term cost for a gradual long-term gain. To start with, taxpayers would have to fund the loss of tobacco duty and the law-enforcement needed to stop illegal importing. In the long-term, the cost to the NHS and the hidden cost to society of smoking-related illness would diminish, then disappear. Credit to Labour where credit is due: the pub ban is much better than nothing. But when it comes to the crunch, this and previous governments can only think in terms of short-term headlines and votes won or lost on this issue. That is why they'll never do what is needed, which is to make the UK the first developed nation to outlaw tobacco smoking. Leo Enticknap, Ingram House, Bootham, York. http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/readersletters/display.var.808568.0.morally_untenable.php http://www.lca-uk.org http://www.ccguide.org.uk
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!