Letter: Our drugs problem

Sir: Charles Kennedy, the new Liberal Democrat leader, should be congratulated for having the courage to speak out against the current war on drugs stance favoured by the Government and Opposition (report, 16 August).

We live in a society where people are imprisoned for easing their arthritic pain with cannabis, and where importing cannabis is seen as a crime that justifies a sentence four times as severe as rape. All this for a substance that has been proven to be less harmful to health than alcohol and tobacco.

B P WHITE

Chadderton, Greater Manchester