Sir, Further to Brian O'Connell's article ("Time to clear the air on cannabis", Health & Family, July 6th), I would like to point out that if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of Anglo-American cultural norms, cannabis would be legal.

Unlike alcohol, cannabis has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Like any drug, cannabis can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

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Users believe cannabis - most popular with higher socioeconomic groups - is now socially acceptable, and most people would like it legalised for medicinal use. But should it be?

'I live at home with my dad and I smoke weed in front of him and it doesn't faze him in the least. There is no taboo with it anymore," explains Pauline Scanlon, a singer from Dingle and a habitual cannabis user.

As cannabis users go, Scanlon is in fact in the minority. The majority of users, according to a National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol (NACD) report published this week, are male. Of those who have tried it in their lifetime, 35 per cent are from higher socioeconomic groups such as professionals, managers or civil servants. Of the general population, one in four 15- to 64- year-olds have tried cannabis in their lifetime, which is an increase of 3 per cent on the last survey conducted in 2006/07.

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The Government is preparing regulations that would legalise cannabis-based medicinal products in limited circumstances, Minister of State at the Department of Health Alex White has said.

The Government is at "an advanced stage in preparing regulations to allow for a very limited availability of cannabis for medical purposes", he said, adding its use would be restricted to a mouth spray.

"We have consulted widely with expert opinion and we have come to the conclusion that there is a case for limited availability," he said, adding the Irish Medicines Board has received a market authorisation application from a pharmaceutical company for Sativex, a cannabis-based mouth spray. The board has recommended the approval of the product for the Irish market.

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Police in the North are investigating whether eight sudden deaths in the province in recent weeks are linked to a potent and toxic batch of the class A drug, Paramethoxyamphetamine, also known as PMA.

Seven of the deaths occured around Belfast and an eighth in the north west.

The PSNI advised people to be particularly careful if they are offered green coloured tablets with a logo of a crown or castle on them.

The North's chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride said that those who took the pills may have believed they were taking ecstasy.

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The term of the Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, has just been extended by two years. While seen as an effective officer who is across his brief, making the most of reduced resources, Callinan has also had the good fortune to be in office at a time that crime is falling.

Recorded crime peaked in 2008 and has reduced yearly since, with the overall drop at 13 per cent to the end of 2011. Homicide and gun crime have both almost halved, while drug crime is down by more than 25 per cent. Burglary is the only crime to buck the recent falling trends. Public-order offences, sex crimes, assaults, thefts and others are all down. While the received wisdom is that crime rises in recession, this is not happening in many countries.

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