Pubdate: Sat, 19 Apr 2014
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2014 Telegraph Media Group Limited
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/114
Author: David Cottam

CANNABIS CRISIS

SIR - Peter Reynolds (Letters, April 18) wrote that "cannabis is 
slightly less addictive and harmful than coffee". What utter nonsense.

Cannabis creates and exaggerates anxieties and psychoses, especially 
in the formative brains of young people. To deal with this inner 
turmoil the person turns to more cannabis.

The result is a slippery slide to addiction and perhaps to more 
physically damaging drugs such as ketamine. This is what happened to 
my daughter, for whom we had to provide drug rehabilitation in South 
Africa, because the services offered in this country essentially do 
not prevent the addict from having access to drug dealers. I think 
her life and ours would have been happier had she spent her teenage 
years drinking too much espresso.

My other daughter lives in Singapore, where drugs are not part of the 
social scene. They have the death penalty for drug-dealing in Singapore.

We in Britain need the same zero-tolerance for this corrosive part of 
modern society.

Dr David Cottam

Dormansland, Surrey
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom