Letter: Addict's progress

Thursday 19 August 1999 23:02 BST

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Sir: The Chief Constable of Strathclyde (report, 17 August) and others who argue that cannabis should remain criminalised because "there is clear evidence that some [hard drug users] started on cannabis" are guilty of spurious reasoning. The truly telling statistic is not how many hard drug users gradutated to hard drugs from cannabis; it is how many cannabis users have graduated to hard drugs.

Most people who use cannabis graduate to it from alcohol, but not everyone who drinks alcohol graduates to cannabis use. This is a pity, because Saturday nights down at the pub would almost certainly be less violent and more interesting if they did.

DAVID R ADDISON

London N1

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