This happened under prohibition - we need to legalise sales of cannabis to adults to protect the kids

Quote: "Jade, 16, gave up her habit after her mother discovered she had been meeting a local drug dealer on a regular basis"

Just about sums it up - so nobody knows the strength or purity, what it was cut with, how much she bought or smoked / ate.

Of course had cannabis shops been allowed for responsible adults with accurate and credible advice at point of sale, indications of strength, age restrictions etc -- this may have never happened - such shops would take many dealers off the streets and make it much harder for 13 year-olds to buy.

Jade was lucky if her street dealer-profiteer did not offer her any harder drugs as she would have had a more serious problem ...

and of course lucky she did not get into alcohol as she may well be dead.

and it's LEGAL to give alcohol to c a child over 4 in the home - although of course totally irresponsible.

Lastly, irrespective of those that claim to have benefited and those that claim to have been harmed, through cannabis, there is NO REASON TO PUNISH people for possession or cultivation of a plant if they have done no harm to others or put them at risk.

If there is NO VICTIM, then there ought be NO CRIME

"Cannabis made me a monster" warns teen
DAILY ECHO, OCTOBER 3 2012
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9962495._Cannabis_made_me_a_monster__warns_teen/

A TEENAGER from Poole has made a television film to warn other young people about the dangers of cannabis - widely regarded as a “soft” drug.
Jade Clement started smoking cannabis when she was 13 and had become addicted by the time she turned 16. Now drug-free, she says: “I don't want anybody going through what I went through.
“Cannabis turned me into a monster. I was selfish, paranoid, and ultimately hurting the people I love and who love me.”
Jade, 16, gave up her habit after her mother discovered she had been meeting a local drug dealer on a regular basis. “When my mum found out, it hit me that I must give up,” she says.
“I was stealing money from her, distancing myself from her, and just destroying my relationship with her. I had already lost my friends, and it looked like I was losing my mum too.”
She became a “fixer” under a Public Service Broadcasting Trust scheme funded by the Big Lottery. It helps youngster of 16-25 take action to change things for the better with creative help from media professionals to make their own promotional material.
Jade's story will feature on ITV's Meridian Tonight at 6pm tomorrow. She also hopes to take her film around Poole, with talks and workshops for groups of young people who may be exposed to cannabis.
“If I could put just one person off trying cannabis, then I will have done my job,” she says. “It is quite an easy drug to get hold of, but that does not mean the effects are easy to deal with.”
Mental health professionals have long warned that cannabis can contribute to mental health issues. In vulnerable individuals, just one use has been known to trigger psychosis, or serious mental illness. Habitual and prolonged smoking of cannabis also increases the risk of developing lung disease, including cancer.