Should Britain legalise cannabis?
Drugs are prevalent on campus. Research by Heather Ashton of Newcastle University shows that 20 per cent of students use cannabis regularly and about 33 per cent use other illicit drugs. A Union of Students in Ireland survey put the figures higher. It said four out of five university students have tried illicit drugs and that three quarters of those want cannabis legalised. There are divisions within universities about how to deal with student drug-taking. The soft approach is to give students information about safe ways to take drugs and on their harmful side-effects; the hardline approach is to crack down on offenders, including those using soft drugs. At Birmingham and Aston universities recently, cannabis offenders have been reported to the police. Lewis Wolpert, professor of biology as applied to medicine at University College London: “Yes, I do support the legalisation of cannabis. It is hard to understand why cannabis should be banned when alcohol, which causes such an enormous
