Source:
Yorkshire Evening Press, UK
Pub date: March 28, 2005
Pub LTE: Let's have open debate on hash
Author: Steve Clements
Web: http://www.thisisyork.co.uk/york/archive/2005/03/28/york_news_readersletters7201ZM.html
AFTER recent publicity
about a schoolboy suspended from Joseph Rowntree School and Home Secretary
Charles Clarke's announcement that he has asked for a review of the
classification of cannabis, I had to write to express my disgust at the
Government's hypocrisy and continued support through its policies of a criminal
black market.
The Legalise Cannabis
Alliance does not suggest cannabis is free from harm; few things in life are.
But if a substance, or an
activity carries a risk of harm to health we do not make it illegal, we give
advice on safety to control and regulate it.
This is exactly what we
need to do with cannabis.
I am not condoning this
lad's naive behaviour but let's be realistic, drug dealers don't ask for proof
of age and we would be burying our heads in the sand if we thought this isn't
going on.
An open and inclusive
debate is what's needed because we can see clearly that prohibition is
collapsing around us.
The risks associated with
cannabis and mental health are exceptionally small and affect a very small
percentage of users. There are at least six million people who use cannabis in
the UK.
Cannabis legalisation
would have far ranging benefits for jobs, the environment, and the economy.
Cannabis is one of the
most uniquely useful plants known to man.
There are 50,000 products
which can be made from cannabis hemp, including bio-degradable plastic and
fuel.
I call on York's MP Hugh
Bayley to hold a public debate to explain why cannabis remains illegal despite
the fact that 80 per cent of people polled in Britain favoured
de-criminalisation.
Let's have this debate.
Steve Clements,
The Legalise Cannabis
Alliance,
Church Street, York.