Get tough on drugs

The West Midlands chief constable thinks drug users should be let off because ‘police do not want to harm their life chances’ (Mail). so is it preferable to let young people run the risk of mental health problems?

Anyone who has seen youngsters affected by drugs would rather, i am sure, have their child warned forcibly by the police than have them end up unable to work or function properly.

A much better scheme would be to send teenagers on a drug awareness course where they would be left in no doubt what could happen to them if they carry on smoking cannabis.

Rather than high-ranking police officers, we should be listening to people like the Mail’s columnist Dr Max Pemberton, who through his work as a nhs psychiatrist knows only too well what can happen to teenage drug users.

HAZEL PIMM, Clevedon, Somerset. The softening police attitude towards the possession of cannabis is a recipe for disaster.

sustained, regular use of cannabis, particularly skunk, can be devastating to mental health. The constituent element of cannabis used for medical purposes, cannabinoid, is not to be confused with thc (tetrahydrocannabinol), which can induce paranoid schizophrenia.

Medicinal cannabis is extremely useful for treating a number of medical conditions and in alleviating extreme pain. i believe my wife would have suffered far more in the final stages of cancer had it not been for the availability of CBD oil.

ROBERT CHILD, Mere, Wilts.