LETTER : Profit and loss in the dope war

From Mr W. S. Hatton

Sir: With regard to your article "Cannabis: the drug we still can't accept" (4 March), I am a 44-year-old carer. My wife has multiple sclerosis and it breaks my heart to watch this once vital woman reduced to a wheelchair- bound, incontinent invalid.

At the moment she is prescribed anti-depressants, anti-spasmodic drugs, pain killers, pills to control her bladder, and steroids. All of these medications have side effects and must constitute no little cost to the health service. Cannabis, however, is very cheap (at source) and if drugs seized by the police could be distributed to sufferers, the savings are obvious. Instead, legal, synthetic "cannabinoid" drugs are preferred. Why? The only answer that springs to mind is the vast profits that drug companies make from a vain attempt to improve on nature.

In communications with my MP, I have yet to receive an intelligent, grown-up reason why my wife cannot be given cannabis legally. What is it about this inoffensive drug that stirs such condemnation?

Arguments about the cost of drugs are obscene. My wife and life are disintegrating before my eyes - this cannot be measured in pounds and pence. Thousands of sufferers and carers must wait in misery and frustration for the voice of reason to be heard.

Yours in despair,

W. S. HATTON

Hawick, Roxburghshire