YOU report the conviction and incarceration of a mother and daughter caught at different Scottish airports with cannabis in their luggage ("Drugs mother and daughter are jailed", The Herald, January 10). Their combined period of incarceration and the policing and prosecution costs will rob the public purse of considerably more than the £200,000 street-value of their drug consignment.
The use of cannabis is endemic and it is readily available. Will these convictions reduce the level of cannabis availability? No. Will it change the drug habits of Scottish users. No. Will it contribute in any way to improving the lives of all Scots. No. If cannabis were to be legalised would that make matters worse? No, some would contend there would be a marked improvement. Could the public funds used in this particular exercise have been put to productive use elsewhere? Yes.
Prohibition does not work, I know that, you know that, why doesn’t the state accept this as fact?
David J Crawford, Glasgow G12.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel