Letter to Daily Mail, January 24 2011

Sirs,

I read with dismay several recent articles by Peter Hitchens ("Professor Nutt, the cannabis propagandist in a scientist's white coat", November 21st and "The crazed smile that says: It’s the little packets of madness that we really need to fear", 17th January).

These articles do nothing to further the debate on cannabis and the law, nothing to help prevent damage caused by cannabis and the law, nothing to help those that risk punishment through use of cannabis to ease their suffering or to help them relax, and nothing to halt the unjust punishment of the very people the law ought to protect.

For sure we read negative articles from zero-tolerance prohibitionists like Mr Hitchens but in fact the few people mentioned are a tiny minority of the estimated 5 million regular users in the UK, hundreds of millions worldwide. The very vast majority of those users claim benefit and suffer no harm.

Yet the Daily Mail prefers to remain partial in this debate and ignore both the positive values of the cannabis plant and the negative costs of the prohibition laws.

Isn't it time that you gave the legalise cannabis lobby a say?

regards

Alun Buffry
Norwich