What HAS idiotic Mr Clegg been smoking?

FACING a wipeout at the General election, Nick Clegg is busy finding ever more desperate ways of appealing to the young voters who have abandoned his party in droves. Having betrayed them over his manifesto pledge to abolish tuition fees, his latest wheeze is to target the druggie vote by reaching out to students who smoke cannabis.

The Lib Dems have pledged that personal possession and the use of drugs — not just marijuana, but even heroin — would no longer be a criminal offence. even by Clegg’s standards, this is a proposal of such reckless imbecility that it makes you wonder what he’s been smoking.

Only last month, scientists published research that showed a clear and conclusive link between the strong new skunks train of cannabis and schizophrenia among the young.

Smoking skunk triples the risk of psychosis; when used daily, the danger is increased five times.

and whose lives are most imperilled by a descent into skunk-addled mental illness? Not the children of rich men such as Clegg, richard Branson and their fellow oh-so-trendy pot promoters, who can afford to pay for private therapy to bring them back from the abyss, cushion their fall and support them when they lose their jobs and relationships.

Others are not so fortunate. For the truth is Clegg has betrayed the very people he seeks to win over: children from less-privileged homes whose life chances and mental well-being are at risk with every puff they take.

according to Mind, the mental health charity, 54 per cent of people with mental health problems have to wait more than three months before receiving any treatment on the NHS.

as anyone who has experience of psychotic episodes with young people will know, three months can be life-destroying.

Only the privileged, sanctimonious liberal elite can afford to turn a blind eye to the damage drugs do to the young. They can look after their own. Who looks after the rest?