CALLERS in a Lancashire Evening Telegraph phone poll have backed the legalisation of cannabis by a majority of more than four to one.

Just over 80 per cent of people who rang our voteline yesterday backed the celebrity campaign involving Sir Paul McCartney and Richard Branson which is calling for the drug to be decriminalisation.

We asked for your views after Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw launched an attack on the high-profile campaign.

The Home Secretary said legalising cannabis would increase drug problems and thwart efforts to tackle them.

But the majority of callers disagreed.

"Jack Straw needs to check his facts," was all one would say.

Another added: "Alcohol is the real social evil. Cannabis chills you out, alcohol makes you into a violent fool."

Another said: "Alcohol kills, cannabis doesn't." Several callers pointed out the pain-relief benefits of the drug.

One said: "I don't drink and cannabis is the only time in 24 hours that I can get pain relief."

Another said: "Twelve months ago I was involved in a road accident and cannabis is better than the medication I receive for pain relief."

One caller said legalisation of cannabis would free police to tackle the problems of hard drugs.

Around 19 per cent of callers said cannabis should remain illegal, including one caller who said: "I know the damage it can cause. A member of my own family is now mentally ill because of it."

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