It’s time we got
our priorities right on drugs:
published letter
Source: Yorkshire Post
Pub date: 1 June 2006
Subj: It’s time we got our priorities right on
drugs
Author: Steve Clements,
SO, how do 13-year-olds obtain cannabis? (Cannabis probe at York school,
The Press, May 29).
The criminal supply of cannabis, supported by this Government, offers no
protection for the young and the vulnerable; dealers don't ask for proof of age
and, as kids tell me regularly, cannabis is easier to obtain than a packet of
fags.
A legal, regulated supply with proper age restrictions would solve this.
Up to 50 per cent of teenagers have tried illegal drugs in the UK, so
tough talk from schools, the police and the media about the menace' of drugs is
disingenuous.
People just don't get it, do they? If these children had been caught
smoking a cigarette no one would have batted an eyelid, let alone report it in
the press, but tobacco kills more people than all illegal drugs combined.
The hypocrisy stinks. Have we got our priorities way out or what?
Bill Scriven, the head teacher of All Saints' RC School, York, mentions a
robust' response to drug abuse. From this article, I see nothing to suggest any
abuse has taken place, but with these exclusions I see the school is quite
willing to abuse the children's education over a substance readily available
all over York.
It's time to stop ruining people's lives in this way, time for a
different and an effective approach to drugs, and one which is not intent on
alienating kids from the society that should be protecting them.
No victim, no crime.
Steve ClementsThe Legalise Cannabis AllianceYork