Soft drugs lead to hard drugs (except for me of course)

So we have the big furore over did David Cameron smoke cannabis does this make him hypocritical in his stand against drug abuse - no. In fact he's been described as "relaxed" about legalising cannabis if it had any health benefits. Not the same of course as legalising because it doesn't have any heath deficits, but still a start.

So what's the big deal anyway, why is cannabis (also known as marijuana) illegal, but tobacco and alcohol available for sale at your nearest shop. Why should this drug need to prove its 'healthy' connections when known killers are perfectly legal?

Perhaps it's the frame of mind it puts you in according to Wikipedia

"if the user does nothing they will feel relaxed and sleepy"

ah-hah we'd have a bunch of stoned workers and the economy would collapse. Hold on though alcohol hardly puts you in a workable state of mind, especially in the quantities we Brits normally drink it. That's one of the reasons restricted times for on-licences were introduced during the war, to stop workers drinking themselves insensible. So why not ban alcohol? Well we saw how perfectly that worked in America, you simply can't ban something that anyone can brew up in their garden shed, or even create by accident. Yet the widespread use of cannabis indicates that it's hardly difficult to grow. Besides Wikipedia goes on to state

"if they engage in intense physical or mental activity they will feel energised"

oops that can't be it.

Health problems, of course that must be it. Even a report on drug use commissioned by the House of Commons stated that

"real and significant" effects on mental health, [but that] "the consumption of cannabis is neither a necessary, nor a sufficient, cause for the development of schizophrenia"

Ah-hah it's bad for you...like um tobacco. So we should reclassify tobacco? It's not as if it grows natively in this country so you wouldn't have the same level of trouble as you do with alcohol and cannabis. That would be the logical outcome if it wasn't for the awful spectre of...

Gateway drug. Dum dum dah. Yes that's right take cannabis and you're on the slippery slope to cocaine and heroin, you don't get that with tobacco do you, no sirree. Except the same report as above clarifies this point quite neatly

"we have found no conclusive evidence to support the gateway theory"

difficult to spin that one. So why is there any link at all, well the answer is obvious to anyone who cares to look. Cannabis is currently illegal, therefore to obtain it you must deal with a criminal. Criminals don't stick to one thing so they deal other things. They also would much prefer you to be heavily addicted and dependant on them so they'll push 'harder' drugs. You don't get the local newsagents pushing crack cocaine on you when you buy a pack of Benson & Hedges (well okay you might depending on where you are)

So why is cannabis illegal and tobacco legal - easy. As mentioned tobacco doesn't grow in this country so all of it has to be imported and that's pretty controllable and therefore taxable. "Money makes the world go around"