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Column: Legal or not we've made a hash of it Katie Grant Scotland on Sunday Sunday 08 Jul 2001 HOW would you feel if tomorrow your teenagers heard this from their favourite radio station: "Rejoice, all cool people, from today cannabis is no longer illegal"? For myself, I'm not sure. But I do know that those who espouse one or other side of the 'legalise cannabis' argument without any reservations are either fools or politicians looking for a quick fix. There are some unequivocal truths. All drugs, including nicotine and alcohol, are dangerous since they interfere - some more, some less - with the natural workings of your mind and body. Cannabis is one of the least dangerous, except that it is usually combined with tobacco, Scotland's No 1 killer. And yes, yes, I know you can take cannabis as a suppository, but I can't see that catching on. But even if, notwithstanding its links with tobacco, cannabis is less dangerous than other drugs, can you say it is without any danger at all? Cannabis indisputably opens up new roads in social behaviour. It was the starting point for most of the 250,000 people who take Ecstasy or snort cocaine each week. Of course, it is attractive to rebellious teenagers precisely because it is illegal and legalising it will make it dull. Who wants to smoke a joint with their parents? But the effect will not be to make cannabis unattractive but to push cool young things quickly on to more exciting territory. Cannabis will be passe. Soon, taking Ecstasy will be 'what everybody does'. Will we then legalise that as well? And what idiot thinks selling cannabis through government shops (VAT included), as advocated by Peter Lilley (on behalf of Michael Portillo) will make the street corner dealer redundant? Cannabis is regularly sold to children. This will continue. Indeed, undercutting and outwitting the government will become the new sport just as it has with cigarettes. That's the way the market works. And yet, and yet. On grounds of liberty, we must ask what right a government has to tell adult citizens how to behave. We can legitimately believe that provided we do no appreciable damage to others, we can go to hell in our own way. All arguments for or against, of which I have outlined only a few, have answers more or less satisfactory. We can believe, for example, that with proper information and education we should be able to make our own choices. But look at the price we pay for the 'educated' choices we already make. The streets are full of drunks, the hospitals full of patients with lung cancer or heart problems. So with every claim parried by a counterclaim what we really need is guidance. But is guidance or selfishness what we are getting? Class plays a big part in the drugs debate. GPs tell me that mothers from the peripheral estates do not want cannabis legalised. Their children need help not hash, life-chances not pipe-dreams. But middle-class parents, who run the media and the government, want cannabis legalised to bring a little buzz into their respectable routines. Their children are thriving, so they can afford to run with the liberty argument and feel a little bit daring for doing so. Then there are the Tories, desperate to give off attractive, libertarian vapours. Are their eyes on our children or just on the next election? In this whole issue there is only one certainty: that those who talk of legalising cannabis as a potential victory are talking rot. Rather, this whole debate is just a sad reflection on a jaded society that increasingly relies on mind-altering substances either to keep reality at bay or keep itself amused. It seems to me that when the DJ announces the 'victory' over the radio, as I have no doubt he will one day quite soon, what we will actually be looking at is a rather depressing defeat.
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