Editor,

RE: "Suspected drug trafficker arrested in Kirehe” (The New Times, August 15).

This drug trafficking vice beats my understanding. If really these herbs (cannabis, marijuana, etc) are bad, why is the United States having a patent on them?

My worry is that we might sometimes put much effort in fighting a proxy war for someone we don’t know.

The only issue is that these drugs are abused in the same way beer is also abused. If someone becomes a drunkard, they lose focus. Likewise, if these drugs are abused, they can become a problem. That is called addiction.

I have never seen a beer addict jailed and beer put off the market yet it has and continues to play a major part in ruining families. No one can deny that some men intoxicate themselves with beer and then get involved in premeditated domestic violence.

Those of us who grew up in villages well know that marijuana is a good herb for certain incurable diseases like cancer, heart attack, diabetes, etc. Even when a cow had delivered a calf and failed to bring ‘the last one’, they used to give it that herb and immediately it gets out.

I would propose that instead of putting more effort in the fight, we employ our scientists to thoroughly study how usefulness these herbs, labeled as drugs, can be useful to society, instead of becoming allergic to them yet they might be useful to us.

David Ndungutse