We all know cannabis is a drug, many ignore dangers of alcohol

After reading recent accounts in the KE, it rather looks as though Ashford is beginning to establish itself as a major player in the Kent cannabis-farming league.

As everyone knows, cannabis is a drug; a word which quite often has a disproportionate effect on the minds of many people, even though they regularly use some form or other of drug themselves.

For 10 or more years, Mrs B and I were drug dealers, selling openly to customers including councillors, lawyers and even policemen.

So why were we never arrested? Because the drug we sold was alcohol, a drug regarded for many years as relatively harmless by successive governments.

In the light of recent reports, I went to Google on my computer, having remembered that the Labour government under Gordon Brown had hired a drugs adviser, Professor David Nutt, the most prominent and respected man in the field. Immediately after presenting his report, he was fired.

His report had set loose a cat among the pigeons; it declared alcohol to be the fifth most dangerous drug, more harmful than tobacco and many illegal ones.

This is not a plea to legalise cannabis or any other proscribed drug – everyone has a view on this.

Some say that legalisation would be a benefit, allowing regulation of sales and providing a source of taxation to swell the nation’s coffers while reducing the market for so-called ‘legal highs’.

The counter argument is that, seeing the effect that taxed and regulated alcohol can have on many people of all ages and all walks of life, it is clear that regulation and taxation wouldn’t work.

One of the most regularly reported aspects of Ashford life concerns buildings – some facing demolition, some encroaching on our ‘garden of England’ (huh) and others yet to be built.

Unfortunately, the single mindedness of our council suggests that they see only the short-term benefits and none of the lasting harm of their current policy.

It can be clearly seen in the ‘opinions’ section of the KE that people are becoming increasingly disenchanted by the blandishments of council spokespersons.

The council members would do well to remember that, especially in ‘apathetic Ashford’, the letters we read here are not just the discountable work of a disenchanted few; they are actually giving voice to an increasing groundswell of discontent.

Why do I say this? It is because I do what it would benefit many of our councillors to do – I sit on benches in the town and chat to people.