From Lionel Jospin's government in France, the In- dependent on Sunday across the water, and the Dutch-led EU Civil Liberties Committee in Strasbourg - all manner of influential opinionmakers are suddenly blowing on about how cannabis should be decriminalised. Arguments range from the apparently positive effects of cannabis when it is prescribed for certain medical problems; to claims that cannabis is not physically addictive; to concern that the illegal status of cannabis means that its widespread use cannot be regulated.
On the con side, there is much mention of "amotivational syndrome", a state of apathy and withdrawal that excessive use of cannabis apparently brings about. Cases are cited of young people losing concentration at school and dropping out. There is also the fear that cannabis is "the gateway drug" to other, more serious drugs such as heroin; that once young people who are buying cannabis get exposed to the "drug culture", they are at risk of becoming hopelessly immersed.
We know from the recent highly publicised drug hauls and heavy prison sentences for dealers that there is plenty of cannabis around. According to the Garda Siochana Annual Report (1996), 63 per cent of drugs proceedings taken in 1996 involved cannabis (only 15 per cent involved heroin).
The demand clearly exists. Many of those who buy cannabis in its different forms are teenagers. 16-year-old Irish students rank high on the European scale when it comes to taking cannabis, according to the recent European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, which covered 26 European countries.
It's important to look at the different contexts in which cannabis is used, says Vincent Doherty, coordinator of the South Inner City Drugs Task Force: "There's a difference between California in the 1960s and families in inner city Dublin who have been ravaged by heroin - for them, taking drugs is not about freedom of choice."
Mick Rafferty, chair of the Dublin Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign, notes that the campaign has not taken a stand one way or another on the legalisation of cannabis: "I personally believe that the distinction must be made between hard and soft drugs. But our areas have been through such havoc that people aren't ready to make that distinction."
Marie Murray, head of the Psychology Department in St Joseph's Adolescent Service, Dublin, concludes that the question which most urgently needs to be asked is why young people are seeking cannabis in the first place: "What we need to find out is why they are seeking something that is mindaltering and what are we doing to provide an alternative?"