Pubdate: Sun, 04 Jan 1998
Date: January 4, 1998
Source: The Independent (UK)
Author:   Dr. Gary Slapper

The small quantity of cannabis in the Straw affair was allegedly sold in a pub.

It seems odd that our society is one where huge quantities of
alcohol are regularly sold with impunity to people with many
disastrous results, whilst a substance widely regarded by
physicians and criminologists as responsible for virtually no
harm is treated as a terrible social menace.

Alcohol Concern reports that about 4,000 people die each year
from conditions directly attributable to alcohol, but cites
evidence that puts the real figure much higher, at about 30,000
deaths. Police reports have suggested that as much as 70 per cent
of offending, including almost all youth violence, is related to alcohol.

Many of the issues in this area deserve much more open and sober
debate than they have hitherto received.

Dr. Gary Slapper, Director, The Law Programme
The Open University, Milton Keynes,
Buckinghamshire