Sir, – The doctors writing about the harms of cannabis are right to draw our attention to the serious damage this drug is doing to many people’s mental health (Letters, April 12th). I also agree that it would be reckless to move from the current out-of-control criminal drugs market to the free-market approach taken in the US and Canada.
But the doctors have not mentioned the harms caused by the criminal drugs market that will stay in place if we follow their advice. The beatings, the shootings, the drive-by pipe bombs, the sexual abuse and the murders. Drug gangs have adapted to our drug laws by becoming ever more violent, and by grooming ever more children into the drugs trade.
The doctors point out that under the current system there are record numbers of hospital admissions for cannabis-related problems. Leaving the market in the control of criminals is unlikely to improve the situation.
In fact, much of the harm caused by cannabis is down to criminal gangs switching to significantly higher potency forms of cannabis. These high-potency drugs cause dramatically more psychotic episodes than the low-potency cannabis that was available 20 to 30 years ago.
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Luckily, we have experience of a successful alternative to keeping our drug markets in the control of criminals. Strict regulatory control over the sale of tobacco, in recent decades, has resulted in dramatic reductions in the use of tobacco and the harms caused by tobacco. And, of course, we don’t see tobacco companies engaging in serious criminal behaviour such as hiring hitmen to murder their competitors, prostituting their clients, or forcing children into criminal behaviour.
Carrying on with the current thriving illegal drugs markets and hoping for better outcomes is not a good recipe for success. We need strict legal control of cannabis together with a strong health campaigns with an emphasis on the dangers of high-potency cannabis.
We can reduce the harms of cannabis and we can reduce the harms of the criminal drugs but only if we take back control from the criminal gangs by allowing the sale of cannabis under strict legal control. – Yours, etc,
ANDREW MONTAGUE,
Ballymun,
Dublin 9.