Pubdate: Thu, 06 Sep 2001
Source: Jamaica Gleaner, The (Jamaica)
Copyright: 2001 The Gleaner Company Limited
Contact:  http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/493
Author: Peter Webster

LETTER OF THE DAY - GANJA AND HEALTH

The Editor, Sir,

Propaganda aside, and reduced to essentials, it matters not whether 
cannabis use is harmful, or deemed immoral by some.

What matters is that a large number of citizens in free societies the world 
over insist that cannabis prohibition is a failure, and produces more harm 
than the drug itself could possibly do.

For example, a recent USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll indicates that 34 per cent 
of Americans want marijuana prohibition ended. Even greater support is 
found in other European countries and in Canada. This fact brings up an 
important issue: considering generally-accepted principles of democracy, by 
what right does a government refuse to accede to the demands of a large, 
conscientiously dissenting minority? If a significant number of citizens 
desire a change of law, yet the government refuses even to consider their 
desires, we have the extremely anti-democratic situation which no small 
number of writers and scholars have warned us about: the tyranny of the 
majority.

After all, we surely cannot advance the idea that one-third or more of a 
country's citizens are completely deluded and have no idea what they are 
proposing by backing cannabis legalisation! Prohibition of cannabis forces 
the minority who wish to use cannabis sensibly to abstain, or suffer severe 
legal penalties whereas, if prohibition were repealed, that would not FORCE 
the majority to do or suffer ANYTHING AT ALL save perhaps a wound to its 
dubious moral convictions. The idea that society would suffer irreparable 
harms, that "the sky would fall" if cannabis were legalised - the warning 
constantly made by prohibition's propagandists - is patently absurd and 
contradicted by the best scientific evidence we have on the subject.

Diversity of customs, opinions and pursuits is to be encouraged in a 
society, not repressed. As Arnold Toynbee wrote,"Civilisations in decline 
are consistently characterised by a tendency towards standardisation and 
uniformity. Conversely, during the growth of civilisation, the tendency is 
towards differentiation and diversity".

I heartily encourage Jamaica towards a rational and effective drug policy!

I am etc.,

Peter Webster
Review Editor, International Journal of Drug Policy
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MAP posted-by: Beth