Should Bermuda relax its laws on marijuana use?

Most readers of seem to think so. According to the current results of an unscientific poll on that site, 22 percent of respondents think marijuana use should be legalised and 40 percent are in favour of decriminalisation (possession would not be legal, but would be punishable by a fine instead of a criminal conviction). Only 38 percent think it should remain illegal.

Those who believe that marijuana should remain illegal generally cite two reasons. First, the health risks. Marijuana is not a harm-free drug. If smoked, it carries the same dangers as tobacco. It can also worsen schizophrenia and other mental health problems, and even precipitate them in susceptible individuals.

The second reason is the belief that marijuana inevitably leads onto more dangerous drugs, such as crack or heroin.

If marijuana were to be decriminalised or legalised, some believe, more people would start using these drugs.

However, while marijuana does have harmful effects, a 1994 study by Australia's National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found that these are no worse than the effects of legal drugs such as tobacco or alcohol. Marijuana is not as addictive as tobacco, nor does it lead to the violent anti-social behaviour that can result from excessive alcohol consumption.

And while alcohol abuse can kill you, no one has ever died from a marijuana overdose.

The belief that marijuana leads inevitably to the use of hard drugs is known as stepping-stone theory. Marijuana users, the theory suggests, begin to crave a more powerful high, and move on to the drugs that can provide it. However there is little evidence to support this theory. It also fails to explain why most marijuana users do not, in fact, move on to more harmful drugs. Gateway theory is similar to stepping-stone theory, but with one crucial difference. While acknowledging that most users of hard drugs have previously used marijuana, it does not regard this as the result of a physiological need to seek a better high. Instead, the theory suggests two explanations. First, that on discovering that the risks of marijuana are less than those usually attributed to it, users assume that the risks of hard drugs have been similarly exaggerated.

Second, that marijuana brings users into contact with individuals who may use or supply harder drugs, which encourages them to try those too. Unlike the stepping-stone theory, the evidence does support the existence of a gateway effect.

This leads to an uncomfortable conclusion: that by keeping marijuana illegal and seeking to dramatise its risks, we may be leaving the gateway to the really dangerous drugs wide open.

Our policy of prohibition deals with this by seeking to apprehend and punish the users and the dealers. Zealously enforced, this might work. But perhaps closing the gateway would be more effective than trying to police it.

The theory suggests that the Government could do this by being more honest in its presentation of the health risks of marijuana, and how they compare to those of alcohol and tobacco. Ad campaigns which overstate the dangers may be counter-productive.

It also suggests that we should seek to limit the contact of marijuana users with individuals who may encourage them to try harder drugs. This is where a regulatory regime similar to that applied to alcohol or tobacco could help.

By allowing the sale of the drug in Government-sanctioned establishments like the Netherlands' "coffee shops", users would be kept away from the dealers.

Taxes charged on the sale of the drug, plus law enforcement savings, would more than offset the cost of enforcing the new regulations.

A more permissive environment would not necessarily lead to an increase in the number of people using marijuana.

As DrugScope, a UK think tank, pointed out in evidence given to the UK's Home Affairs Select Committee on Drug Policy in 2001, "?cannabis legislation does not seem to impact upon cannabis consumption in any significant way".

Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent and former PLP Senator Calvin Smith have publicly called for decriminalisation in the past. Deputy Premier Ewart Brown and backbenchers Renee Webb and Wayne Perinchief have said that they are open to discussion.

Sports Minister Dale Butler has said that he would not support a softening of Bermuda's drug laws, but he would like to see a national debate on the subject. Last year, however, Premier Alex Scott seemed to rule this out. "Bermuda has a very definite policy, we are not trying to encourage any further drug use," he said.

Nonetheless, I believe that Bermuda's drug policy should be pragmatic, not moralistic. The harm done by existing marijuana legislation may outweigh the harm done by the drug itself. The Government has already set up special commissions to look at the issues of independence and sustainable development. Perhaps a commission to re-examine our marijuana laws would be beneficial too.