LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - CANNABIS HYPOCRISY

Sir: I am once again appalled at the amount of time and public money being
spent prosecuting a person for an offence involving a virtually harmless
plant - cannabis. By now it should be clear that cannabis is remarkably
safe. This has been confirmed by every major government and scientific
investigation including our own 1968 Royal Commission report.

Laws are meant to protect people and society, not simply impose the will of
the Government on its citizens. Recently beef on the bone, like cannabis,
has been declared dangerous. Yet known poisons and dangers, not only the
likes of alcohol and tobacco but also clingfilm, pesticides, pollutants and
food additives, are allowed.

The act of Jack Straw's son in supplying cannabis had no victim; nobody was
hurt (except possibly the pride of his father). Millions of people have
supplied each other with cannabis since this case has been in the press,
with no harm done. The only victims will be the lad himself - a victim of a
nonsense law - and the public, who will foot the bill.

What we need is truth, not a nanny state run by hypocritical individuals
who seem hardly capable of living within their own rules.

Ann Clarke, Norwich
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Sir: We are fascinated by the irony of a strict Home Office minister with a
son in trouble with the law. But shouldn't we be disgusted by the
journalist who makes a name for herself out of reporting the alleged petty
misdemeanours of a schoolboy in which she colluded. Has journalism learnt
nothing from the events of 1997?

The Rev Stephen Leeke, Warboys, Cambridgeshire
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Sir: 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
--
Sir: Jack Straw has done a lot of preaching whenever he's had the chance.
Not just his personal credibility as Labour's leading control-freak but the
credibility of authoritarian socialism has sustained a heavy and
well-deserved blow.

I wait with interest to see which hapless minority is going to be deluged
with Home Office and Labour Party claptrap to divert public attention from
his predicament.

N R Bassett, London N19
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Sir: Jack Straw should not be hounded because of the exploits of his son.
Mr Straw has done nothing improper and those who might think it could never
happen to them should think again. Any unsuspecting parent may suddenly get
the same surprise, even the most law-abiding.

John Walton, Walsall, West Midlands
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Sir: Given the fiasco over the identity of the Cabinet minister's son,
perhaps The Independent might kindly set up an offshore Internet site so
that it could offer its readership prompt news about things which dare not
speak their names in Britain.

Martin Hoskins, London N4