Source: Eastern Daily Press, UK

Pub Date: Tuesday, 30 April 2002

Pub LTE: Cannabis is unlike tobacco

Author: Alun Buffry, Legalise Cannabis Alliance

CANNABIS IS UNLIKE TOBACCO

Geoffrey Davies, of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, was correct when he said that the Legalise Cannabis Alliance is enthusiastic about large-scale cultivation of cannabis (ie hemp) in East Anglia. ("A new harvest of misery", Letters, 24 April)

He also asked whether we thought that cultivation of tobacco added to human happiness.

Of course not, but the only things the two substances have in common are that they are both plants and they are both smoked.

Tobacco is poisonous and highly addictive substance and has caused illness and the premature death millions of people in the UK just over the last 30 years.

Cannabis smoking has killed no one.

Cannabis has thousands of uses: from medicine to fuel, as fibre for clothing, canvas, ropes, oils, paper, paints, plastics and much more.

Telling people that cannabis and tobacco are equally dangerous, or that cannabis is one of a whole range of dangerous drugs, is likely to tempt a person using one to try another.

It does nothing to discourage drug use or minimalise harm.

Alun Buffry

Legalise Cannabis Alliance

PO Box 198