High time for new drugs law

IT IS very promising to learn that the US states of Colorado and Washington legalised 
cannabis for all adults (The Week, 11 November) as the 
result of voter referendums on 6 November.

Recreational cannabis will now be controlled, taxed and regulated by those US states in a way similar to alcohol. Legitimate businesses will be licensed to sell cannabis.

It is time that the United Kingdom legalises cannabis to create jobs, reduce crime and generate tax revenue.

Cannabis is objectively less harmful than alcohol. It is not addictive and no-one has ever died from it. It is irrational 
to punish adults for using a substance safer than alcohol.

Just like alcohol prohibition in the US, the prohibition of cannabis has not stopped its usage but rather only moved the profits of its production and sale into underground markets, and unfairly brands otherwise law-abiding adults with criminal records.

Cannabis legalisation will give the United Kingdom more jobs, lower taxes and reduce crime. The United Kingdom should follow the lead of the US states of Colorado and Washington by taxing and regulating cannabis for adults like alcohol.

Eric Hafner, Toms River, 
New Jersey, USA