Drug users or a busker... guess who police stop

Last week you reported that police merely looked on as thousands of drug users gathered in Hyde Park in London to smoke cannabis. This was the first time that I had heard about the ‘420’ day, on which users feel it is their right to smoke cannabis openly.

I believe the police should have arrested everyone in possession. Cannabis is dangerous and, contrary to what many users claim, it can make people act aggressively. Sometimes they get in such a state that they don’t know what they are doing – I can just imagine one of those people trying to cross a road and getting hit by a car.

I don’t think this event should have been allowed to take place. A park is a public space where there are often lots of children. These people were not only causing danger to themselves but also to other park users.

There needs to be a strong police reaction to such events to ensure they do not happen again. N. Higham, London On the day before the rally, I was in Hyde Park and saw two police officers questioning a busker. It looked as if one of them was writing in a notebook, possibly giving him an on-the-spot fine for not having a licence.

OK, the man was in the wrong but it was hardly the crime of the century. The next day, police watched as thousands of people openly flouted the law in the same park by smoking a dangerous drug. Where are their priorities?

A. Brown, Surrey Drugs are illegal because they are dangerous. At a time when smoking tobacco is becoming increasingly less popular, it would be a step in the wrong direction to decriminalise cannabis. David Francis, Bristol The shocking effect of the danger of the drug was brought home to me just after Easter by a shattered grandmother, a member of our Cannabis Skunk Sense charity. Her 18-month-old grandson had eaten some cannabis resin which had been left on a table. This is what she told me:

‘Nothing can prepare you for the sight of your precious grandchild attached to machinery and struggling to cling on to life. His little heart was tachycardic, his blood pressure fluctuated, and his oxygen levels kept falling. He went rigid and his screams will stay with me for ever. His limbs were floppy and unresponsive.

‘The paediatrician started talking about encephalitis and whether my grandson needed a CAT scan to assess if his brain had been damaged.

‘He finally was able to come off the monitors just an hour short of 24 hours since he had eaten the resin. My precious grandson survived, but only because of the expertise of an amazing team of doctors and nurses. Is this risk what we really want for our children and grandchildren?’