Letter: Healthy profits

Sir: The reason why the British Medical Association seeks to legalise synthetic preparations derived from cannabis, rather than reassessing the natural herb (Letters, 10 July), is money.

Natural remedies are outside the scope of large pharmaceutical companies and their quest for exorbitant profits. Once a chemical is synthesised, as opposed to extracted from a herb or plant, the pharmaceutical companies can soak either the Government, or the patient, or both, with the unquantifiable costs of research.

JAN TYSZKIEWICZ

Berkhamsted Hertfordshire