Letters: Prove cannabis is harmless

Many overseas governments including several US states have legalised cannabis. Photo/File

I totally agree with G.J. Philip (Letters, September 13) when he argues cannabis should not be legalised.

It strikes me as ironic that over the years various governments have taken steps to outlaw tobacco smoking because of the costly health issues generated. Now we have the minor parties wanting cannabis to take its place as a social curse with all the ills and issues, both physical and mental, that it would cause. It just does not add up.

Legalising it just because other countries have done so, does not prove it is harmless and I suspect that if those American states that have were researched, they would be found to be experiencing the very same problems I mentioned above.

Parliament would be wise to place cannabis under the same law as the synthetic stuff now is and make the advocates prove it is harmless before any law is changed to make it legal. To my mind, it does not make any sense whatsoever to replace one nuisance substance with another and create more social problems.

But then that's how politicians work. They like to solve one problem by creating another.

AJ MACKENZIE
Rotorua

Time and time again we are shown what is supposed to be dairy stock standing in streams.

It seems the photographers, producers and editors have no idea what a dairy cow looks like. They have an udder underneath. It is misleading to show bulls and steers to try to create a movement against dairy farmers. It is poor journalism to pull out seriously old photographs of cows or publish pictures of bulls and steers pretending to be dairy cows destroying river water quality.

Almost all rivers, streams ponds and lakes have been fenced off by dairy farmers for years. Publishing what is supposed to by dairy cows in streams and water to sway public opinion of dairy is misleading, treacherous and lazy, especially when sent to foreign TV media for global broadcast. It really is national sabotage fed by hysterical misinformation. Could a more appropriate cause be overpopulation and dense urban living?

PAULINE KEAN
Rotorua