Nicotine is one of the most dangerous and addictive substances know to man and yet nicotine consumption in Britain has fallen from the 60% to some say the 25% level, while the drug remained legal.
How was this achieved? Through education, advertising and limiting nicotine advertising.
I am not making sport of this man's and his son's tragedy but this case needs to be looked at.
First the father tells us this:
My son James was always a popular teenager. He had masses of friends, was good at sport, and was also intelligent and handsome. Like many boys in their teens, he was constantly going out to meet friends, arrange football or cricket games or see his long-term girlfriend.
He'd done well at school with 10 GCSEs and three A-levels, and he went off to Southampton University to study history and politics. He was following the fine example of his sister Joanne, who had been to Nottingham University and was doing well in public relations.
But later on we are told this:
We found out that James had started smoking cannabis regularly from the age of 15. He was very good at hiding it and controlling himself when he'd been smoking. He'd even given it up when he sat his exams.
So, James regularly smoked cannabis from the age of 15 and yet "He had masses of friends, was good at sport, and was also intelligent and handsome" and he was able to get "10 GCSEs and three A-levels" as well as go to University.
Obviously, there was nothing wrong up untill this point. So what changed.
But at university he went wild, spending around £5,000 in one year on cannabis, much of it on "skunk weed" - a particularly potent variety of the drug, that's between 10 to 30 times stronger than ordinary cannabis. It had literally blown his mind.
Well, how could legalization help?
First, the price would fall dramatically, there would be no profit in it. That would have the added benefit of getting the criminal and terrorist element out of the cannabis trade.
Second, people could get milder strains of cannabis instead of whatever is available. Sometime, maybe a lot of the time, what's out there is dangerous stuff. There is no quality control.
All the money spent on police, the courts and jails could go into education and advertising to help reduce cannabis consumption much in the way nicotine consumption was reduced.
When cannabis was downgraded to category C, there were outcries that cannabis consumption would escalate. But as Chales Clarke pointed out in his decision not to re-classify cannabis back to cat B, that did not happen. It wouldn't happen if cannabis were completely legal either. Provided the government provided the needed education and advertising and did not allow cannabis advertising.
Listen to what the father says in closing.
What appalled me about David Blunkett's decision two years ago to downgrade cannabis to a Class C drug is the signal it sends to our young people. My own son told me: "It's okay Dad, it's herbal and organic."
That may be so, but as our experience shows, cannabis is anything but harmless.
No drug is harmless, including alcohol. What is needed here is education not legislation - nicotine, the most addictive of all drugs - is proof of that.
Why do we have different categories of drugs? The categories are based on the harmful effects and addictivness of the durgs involved. Both alcohol and nicotine are very harmful and addictive and yet they remain legal. What message does this send to our young people? That we are hypocrites, lying or just don't know what we are talking about.
What would happen overnight if all drugs were legalized?
The criminals would disapper and the terrorist would be out of the drug trade - there would be no more profits in the drug trade.
Compaines would spring up offering a safer product with less harmful ingredients.
We would save thousands of police man hours, court time and lower the burden on overcrowded jails. The police and courts could then spend more time on violent crime.
The government could spend more time and money on education and advertising highlighting the danger of all drugs. It worked on nicotine.
Prohibition never works. There will still be those who will risk it and consume what they want.
As I said at the beginning, legalization does not equate to condoning and education coupled with advertising can get that message accross.
There are people who suffer mental disorders from the effects of cannabis just as there are people who suffer mental disorders from the effects of alcohol.
A hospital near me just hired three addtional security guards to help with drunk and disorderly people. Bouncers are present in pubs, bars and nightclubs to help with drunk and disorderly people. Every weekend the police have their hands full with drunk and disorderly people. All the while the root cause, alcohol, remains legal.
There are those that would argue, that's true but we don't need to add another drug into the mix. That's a red herring, you're not "adding" anything, cannabis is already here.
What we're talking about is a more sensible approach.
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