Pubdate: Mon, 12 May 2008
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2008 Telegraph Group Limited
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/114
Author: Lord Cobbold

CANNABIS IS A HEALTH ISSUE

Sir - The management of cannabis should be a public health concern 
rather than a criminal justice issue. There is no logic in treating 
cannabis and other drugs differently from alcohol and tobacco.

It is possible to mount a campaign stressing the health dangers of 
cannabis without the threat of criminal retribution - witness the 
very successful campaign against smoking tobacco.

Our prisons are overcrowded and reclassifying cannabis from class C 
to class B will only add to the problem. The policy of prohibition 
has manifestly failed, as it did with the prohibition of alcohol in 
the United States in the 1920s.

Lord Cobbold, Knebworth, Hertfordshire
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom