Pubdate: Wed, 01 Apr 1998
Date: April 1, 1998
Source: The Scotsman (United Kingdom)
Author: Tim Hughes

Sir, 

Tom Morton claims (Opinion, 25 March) that alcohol is a good drug
and others are not, merely serving to make their users stupid and 
unable to perform to anywhere near the level which they themselves 
perceive.

Was his column designed to allow anti-prohibitionists to poke fun 
at him for his naive viewpoint, or was he doing it deliberately?
Claiming that alcohol "is subject to rules" sounds to me like an
argument in the favour of legalisation.

The suggestion that cannabis makes you talk rubbish, that even the
"drunkest buffoon would find moronic", needs to be looked at from 
the other point of view, where cannabis users interact with others 
who have been drinking and are seen as "buffoons", incapable of 
holding a rational conversation without arguing ineffectually, 
shouting, and possibly even getting violent.

Is it any wonder that the cannabis smoker shies away and becomes 
nervous?

Tim Hughes
Wellington St York