Hit drugs, not drivers

WITHOUT ever asking Parliament, our law enforcement system chose some years ago to stop taking cannabis seriously. Police, prosecutors and courts made this rash decision just as the news began to come in that the use of this supposedly ‘soft’ drug, in fact extremely potent, is strongly linked with mental illness.

This worrying link seems to be greatest of all among the young, which makes it all the more alarming that greedy cynics are using Instagram to market cannabis sweets – designed to look like real popular brands.

Quite rightly, the makers of genuine sweets have angrily condemned this, and experts have rightly advised that eating marijuana is often the most dangerous way to take it.

But when the official penalty for cannabis possession is five years in prison, and 14 years for trafficking, why is it even necessary to point this out?

The illegality of the drug should be warning enough, and would be if the laws were even moderately enforced. They are not.

Perhaps the police and the courts are too busy working out new ways of pursuing car drivers, most of whom are forced on to our congested roads by the need to work and get their children to school.

Their latest idea under discussion, fining motorists for going just one mile an hour above the limit, would no doubt bring in plenty of money in fines and fees. But is it really the most important thing they could be doing?