Source: Evening News (Norwich UK) Contact: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 SPECIAL FEATURE WIDENS DEBATE ON CANNABIS IT WAS a good article on the cannabis debate (Evening News, March 18) but Derek Williams couldn't have been thinking right when he suggested a lower age limit of 18 for buying cannabis "over the counter." Surely he acknowledges that a huge number of youngsters already take cannabis and other drugs illegally and his proposal will do nothing to help them. They will all still have to buy it illegally, and they will. Derek obviously feels that the present law banning cannabis is wrong, so why does he want to continue applying it to kids? As Jack Girling sensible pointed out: "If youngsters did not have to buy cannabis illegally they would not be exposed to dealers selling hard drugs." Under Mr Williams' proposal that would continue to happen. Mr Girling is right, cannabis is a plant, not a drug, and should never have been banned in the first place. G French, Norwich Thank you for livening up the cannabis debate. (IS IT TIME TO LEGALISE CANNABIS?: Evening News, March 18). This very serious question deserves far more attention than most politicians seem to want to give it. Whilst it was clear that not all 'legalise cannabis campaigners' want exactly the same changes in law, the prohibition arguments let their own side down badly. All the harm allegations which Mr Paul Betts attributed to cannabis have been contradicted in the scientific reports. Without going into detail now I can point to two publications which exonerate cannabis from the myths perpetuated by prohibitionists. These are 'Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts' by Professors Morgan and Zimmer, and The Report of the FCDA Europe. If Mr Betts and his lobby went to the trouble of reading the evidence they may learn something. Clearly the 'Keep cannabis illegal" lobby have no argument at all, for even if cannabis did cause problems, the present legal system is causing even more. It is the very illegality of cannabis which has thrown the supplies and untaxed profits into the hands of criminally organised gangs who act as the real 'gateway' to lead people from one substance to another. Alun Buffry, Norwich Thank you for the special feature on the legalisation of cannabis (Evening News, March 18), which on the whole was a well-balanced reflection of the arguments one hears. The comments made by Jack Girling and Paul Betts illustrates how this debate has so far been a conversation of the deaf. On the one hand Jack thinks cannabis is not only harmless but always beneficial in every aspect, whereas Paul Betts accused it of just about everything, including shrinking the brain. Of course, both of these opinions are just that, opinions, and the truth lies somewhere in between. Cannabis is an integal part of many peoples lives and we, as a society, have to come to terms with that. Unfortunately, the Government, its so-called "drug tsar" Keith Hallawell and head-in-the-sand Home Secretary Jack Straw are doing nothing to improve the situation. Perhaps the most disturbing comments were made by the police who, according to your report, oppose legalisation. Was Det Chief Insp Chris Grant really reflecting Norfolk police policy or was he stating a personal opinion? It was particularly disturbing to see the police endorsing the outlandish claims of Paul Betts. As Norwich North MP Dr Ian Gibson (a "child of the sixties" as he put it) said, the use of cannabis as a recreational drug is not going to go away. Either we learn to live with that fact, or we tear our society apart in a futile effort based upon ignorance, lies and the twisted morals of prohibition. Derek Williams, Norwich