Like many people of the 1960s generation, I smoked a bit of cannabis in my 20s. Did it do me any harm? Maybe not, but all that deep inhaling of the narcotic probably didn't do my lungs much good either.
The decriminalisation of cannabis – which is to be debated in the Dail this coming week at the instigation of Luke 'Ming' Flanagan's Cannabis Regulation Bill – isn't something that provides an easy black-and-white solution.
Perhaps, as pro-cannabis voices argue, far too much garda time and resources are wasted chasing up and impounding this relatively minor drug. Even so, dope smokers find it relatively easy to access their supply.
Source: Mark Kenny, Irish Independent, 04/11/2013