Newsbeat

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:50 GMT 10:50 UK

If you want to obtain alcohol, you have to go to a pub/club/off-licence or if you're under18 (and look it), steal it from your parents.
If you want to obtain Cannabis, ask any 13 year old kid, they can get some or put you in touch with someone (who can get some)within 1/2 an hour.
That is the effect of prohibition! Dealers prefer to use kids as 'mules' because they're more gullible and as the penalties are less if they're caught, usually more loyal. Especially when 'omerta' gets mucho respeck

[pandatank], london

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:43 GMT 10:43 UK

Jaqui Smith has no idea what she is talking about. Horse riding has killed far more people in any one year than ecstacy. Alcohol is far more dangerous than cannabis and causes violence, disorderly behaviour and vandalism - and yet it is legal. Jaqui Smith should listen to what the police and hospital staff have to say about alcohol.

Lisa, stafford

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:41 GMT 10:41 UK

It seems to me that we get far more trouble in this country from alcohol abuse than from any of the hard drugs

Barbara59, Kent

Nonsense. Spend a day in the public gallery of any Crown Court in Britain and you won't believe that any more.

harry portsmouth

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:40 GMT 10:40 UK

Its a drug!

Ban it!

After-all, just about everything else in our lives has been banned by our Nanny Government. No?

Peter, Ulverston

It's not a drug, it's a plant.

And it is banned.

Tony Harrison, Somerset

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:39 GMT 10:39 UK

"Anyone who is opposed to the legalisation of cannabis should go o Amsterdam. "
JJ, Brighton

They are closing down coffee shops in Amsterdam because of the crime they bring with them. They have become centres for dealing in hard drugs.

Dorloukie Fienusess, Orly

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:37 GMT 10:37 UK

I work on the premise of if its not natural, its not right.

Peter Berry, United Kingdom

But Cannabis is natural, Peter.

Tony Harrison, Somerset

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:33 GMT 10:33 UK

The cost of jailing those who commit crimes under the influence of alcohol is mind-boggling. Cannabis-induced criminality is negligible

[BeppeSapone], Belfast, United Kingdom

Most people who smoke pot drink as well. Speak to someone who smokes skunk all day. Would you employ this person in a responsible job?

Wernher von Braun

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:33 GMT 10:33 UK

All drugs are dangerous even prescription ones. Cannabis is not a harmless drug as a lot of people think. It affects people in different ways but I would call it mind-bending as people I know who smoke it have some kind of mental problems caused by cannabis

lena, cardiff

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:31 GMT 10:31 UK

Cannabis should not even be on the list. Did you ever hear of anyone dying of it or of it increasing domestic violence etc. Alcohol and cigarettes are far more harmful to individuals and society, science and numbers clearly prove this. The politicians who want to reclassify it are the ones who should be reclassified as a bunch of witch hunting political cronies abusing the ignorance and ill-thought fears of a conservative base to their and the drug cartels' benefit. Put them on the list instead.

Rabie, Beirut

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:26 GMT 10:26 UK

Since when did legality & classification have any effect on those who have already decided that they wish to use?

Make them legal, thus reducing all the criminality surrounding the trade in drugs, and tax them, thus raising badly needed funds.

It's up to the individual to choose what if any substances they wish to use, not up to the state to dictate... it is only their business if someone else is harmed.

Megan, Cheshire UK

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:23 GMT 10:23 UK

Sorry folks - Middle England rules where the politico treads here. Anyone who has listened to Jackie Smith's holier than thou pronouncements on cannabis cannot have failed to detect the whiff of a Woman who smoked dope herself when young but when she was older & in office wasn't honest enough to give the benefit of the idea that she determined her own life to anyone else. She instead took that choice away from everyone else. Go Jackie - you're history @ the next election anyway..

Jamie Taylor, Soho, London, United Kingdom

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:11 GMT 10:11 UK

Of course it should be. In fact it should be legalised and, as they have successfully done in California, replace anti depressants.

robin marchesi, london, United Kingdom

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:11 GMT 10:11 UK

Cannabis less harmful.

What a joke & an insult.

If you have 1 can of lager, you'll probably be ok.

Millions of people on Fridays/weekends, consume FAR beyond sensible drinking & drink quantaties that MULTIPLY the dangers.

Have you seen a stoned person cross a road or drive a car or attempt to cook, or change a childs nappy.

I have lived in Holland & experienced/seen it.

Why not just legalise carrying guns & knives, they're also harmless, until used wrongly & abused.

[SKYISBLUESOAMI], UN-SUSTAINABILITY THE EPITATH OF HUMANITY, United Kingdom

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:11 GMT 10:11 UK

Any Government that prioritised the future well-being of our nation rather than its own political survival would de-criminalise all drugs and regulate them in the same way that alcohol and tobacco are. Prohibition didn't work in the US for alcohol and it will ultimately fail for everything else. Sadly until then there is a growing legacy of social decay due to the consequences of criminality, together with wasted billions due to the useless "war on drugs" combined with missed tax revenues.

Matt Roberts, Rugby

Added: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 10:05 GMT 10:05 UK

The only option is to make it legal and stop the cartels.

However, I know many people who smoke the drug, and those who use it everyday show serious signs of mental illness, such as hightened aggression, especially if they can't get hold of the drug for a while.

The argument that cannabis will relax the public goes against the medical proof that it causes personality disorders and paranoia. These two mental illnesses together can make someone extremely volatile.

Anon