‘Confessions of a pot smoker’

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 20

‘Confessions of a pot smoker’

Sir,—l am sure that many of the anti-marijuana are rightthinking people who believe in individual initiative and individual responsibility. Surely they must oppose such State control of minds and bodies. If marijuana could be proved to kill within six months it is up to the user to decide if he will fake the risk. After all, war pays. We are being legislated into soulless zombies. — Yours, etc., LINDA FLETCHER. March 7, 1982.

Sir,—How stupid of L. J. L. Cooper (March 8) to suggest that the article on marijuana in the March 4 issue will have a harmful effect on “impressionable young minds.” People do not have to consult newspaper articles or books to find out how to grow and smoke marijuana. People who cannot even read know how to grow and smoke it. Then Mr Cooper wonders what somebody called Ray Comfort would think. Who is he, and what importance has he in the realms of journalism or health? We want freedom of the press unhindered by squeamishness or prudery or religiosity. If Mr Cooper is upset by such an Innocuous article he should stick to the parish magazine. Is marijuana any more harmful than whisky? Whether its use is legal or not is irrelevant. — Yours, etc., R. J. BURNS. March 8, 1982.

Sir,— Drug users can be divided into two groups — recreational users to whom the law is just another bureaucratic obstacle to a good time (remember prohibition?), and those with a problem, of which drug misuse is merely a symptom. Making drugs illegal merely shifts the problem. According to the person, it either totally destroys them as they seek kicks from common substances which are often extremely poisonous, or it puts money into the hands of dealers or breweries. So let us stop wasting the taxpayer’s money with drug squads and helicopter raids and start treating the causes of the disease. — Yours, etc., ALICE HOOKER. March 8, 1982. ...