Pubdate: Tue, 05 May 1998 Date: 05/05/1998 Source: Independent, The (UK) Author: Justin Brett Pete Barrett (letter 27 April) writes that all the cannabis users he knows are addicted to tobacco. This should not be used as an argument to support the continued ban on cannabis. Many regular users are now choosing to smoke it neat or make cakes and drinks in light of continued evidence of the dangers of tobacco. Indeed, I know a number of life-long smokers who have used cannabis as an effective means to quit the tobacco habit. One, in particular, who had tried virtually every method of giving up and had not used the drug before, found that an occasional smoke of cannabis not only satisfied the craving for the feeling of smoke in the lungs, but enabled him to cope with nicotine craving as well. It is ridiculous that the dangerous drug is legal while the therapy is not. Justin Brett Gilwern, Gwent