sundayletters@independent.co.uk

July 5,1998

Cannabis Campaign - Safer than many tranquillisers

By Vanessa Thorpe

Campaigners against the drug Benzodiazepine, many of whom who have suffered from the ill effects of taking the tranquilliser, are arguing this week that cannabis would be far safer for doctors to prescribe, if only it were legal.

As they prepare for a conference on drug safety in London on Friday, which will examine better ways of warning consumers of the effects of certain prescribed drugs, former users claim that the harmful and addictive "benzo" family of pills is still being prescribed in Britain and Wales.

In a letter written to the Medicines Control Agency, members of the anti-benzodiazepine action group point out that the withdrawal symptoms and side effects of the drug have been known about now for some time.

"These so-called minor tranquillisers should be given only in a controlled hospital environment and classified as a Class A drug," said Barry Haslam, 55, a former accountant from Oldham who was prescribed a series of "benzo" related drugs when he suffered a nervous breakdown.

"I certainly wish I had taken cannabis instead. The tranquillisers have ruined my memory and were very difficult to come off. A doctor told me recently that I was on the equivalent of two or three bottles of whisky a day."

Mr Haslam and his fellow campaigners argue that Home Office Statistics Bulletins this decade prove that more people died from benzodiazepine usage than from such drugs as heroin and cocaine. No one, on the other hand, has ever died as a result of cannabis.