Control of cannabis

sir – Camilla Tominey gave an excellent 21st-century illustration of the American Prohibition argument of the 1920s (“The Left-wing obsession with cannabis could destroy an entire generation”, Comment, May 6).

Prohibition had to remain in place because people were destroying their health by drinking, especially those who were making themselves blind by drinking hooch.

Decent booze, such as we drank legally in Britain, was smuggled in by the likes of Dutch Schultz and other mobsters. Only the rich could afford it. The poor bought cheap stuff made in illicit stills in the wilds of Kentucky and went blind.

In Britain, brain-frying cannabis is now sold by modern-day mobsters to young people. Do its harmful effects stop them buying it? No.

The only way to control cannabis is to make it legal, control its strength and reduce its bad effects. This also has a notable side-effect, which is to create lots of lovely tax for the Government. That is a good, Right-wing solution.

I like whisky, which is legal, so I don’t need to go up into the Highlands and buy hooch. I go to an off-licence and I help fill the Government’s coffers as well. Many other countries seem to have finally understood this simple answer to the cannabis problem. How long will it take us in Britain? Andrew HN Gray

Edinburgh

sir – When I was a young (English) man, the chief medical officer for Scotland taught me how to drink whisky (Letters, May 6): breathe out through the nose while rolling the whisky on the back of the tongue to get the full benefit of the aromas. Nicholas Bielby

Bradford, West Yorkshire