Violence is not an issue when you smoke cannabis. Neither is death. The same cannot be said for alcohol. I ended up with a first-class degree from a prestigious university. However, I saw several friends encounter mental problems through their overuse of the drug - just as I saw others develop the beginnings of alcoholism, and countless more become hooked on nicotine.
All drugs have both beneficial and harmful effects.
Paul, Solicitor, UK Importation of cannabis is treated by the law as four times worse a crime than rape. Possession of soft drugs can lead to arrest, imprisonment, and the loss of your career. When reports state that the reason that England football fans didn't behave in the Netherlands in the same way they behaved in Belgium was because they had been using cannabis, you have to ask why cannabis is illegal in so much of Europe, while alcohol is such a part of the culture of the continent. Dave Lock, Wales Policy makers and legislators are themselves users or former users of soft and recreational drugs. It would therefore be pure hypocrisy to take a hard line.