It appears from last week’s letters that Victoria Gillick rather misses the point on the decriminalisation of cannabis.

The fact that ‘improved’ growing techniques may have resulted in a stronger product is an argument for regulation, not against it!

If I visit premises licensed by the local authority and approved by the police for the sale and consumption of alcohol, I have choices.

At lunchtime I might opt for an alcohol free ‘soft’ drink, or a comparatively weak shandy. In the evening I might chose a stronger beer, or possibly a whiskey with an alcohol content many times higher than lunchtime’s shandy.

If he thinks that I have had too much the Landlord will decline to sell me anymore. And what’s more, the Government regularly publishes advice on how much of that dangerous drug, alcohol, I can safely consume.

However, cannabis languishes in the dark world of prohibition. I can’t quietly grow a couple of plants at home without moving into the world of criminality.

If I wanted cannabis (whether for medical or social reasons) I’d be forced to deal with criminals and the black market.

It’s a fact of life that there is more profit in the stronger and more concentrated drugs. An unscrupulous dealer will want to sell me ‘skunk’ cannabis, or worse heroin.

The friendly tobacconist of the High Street, with his jars of different smokes, sadly disappeared long ago.

Surely it would be better if I had the opportunity to either grow, or buy the harmless pot that Mrs Gillick describes as being available in the halcyon days of the sixties from a registered and licensed purveyor (and received the benefit of government health advice) rather than being forced into clandestine meetings with criminals?

CHRIS HOWES

Chatteris