Pubdate: Wed, 1 Apr 1998
Source: Scotsman (UK)
Contact:  http://www.scotsman.com

NAIVE VIEWPOINT ON DRINKING AND DRUGS

Sir, - Tom Morton claims (Opinion, 25 March) that alcohol is a good drug
and others are not, merely serving to make their users stupid and unable to
perform to anywhere near the level which they themselves perceive. Was his
column designed to allow anti-prohibitionists to poke fun at him for his
naive viewpoint, or was he doing it deliberately? Claiming that alcohol "is
subject to rules" sounds to me like an argument in the favour of
legalisation.

The suggestion that cannabis makes you talk rubbish, that even the
"drunkest buffoon would find moronic", needs to be looked at from the other
point of view, where cannabis users interact with others who have been
drinking and are seen as "buffoons", incapable of holding a rational
conversation without arguing ineffectually, shouting, and possibly even
getting violent. Is it any wonder that the cannabis smoker shies away and
becomes nervous?

Tim Hughes Wellington St York