ABSTRACT
It might be argued that there are more pressing matters of public concern in Britain today than the issue of whether cannabis (in the form of either marihuana or hashish) should be decriminalized or should at least be officially subject to more lenient sentencing policies. Considerations of newsworthiness aside, it nevertheless seems at first sight rather surprising that a subject so fervently and lengthily debated in the late 1960s and early 1970s should recently have aroused so comparatively little attention. The most recent concerted attempt to resuscitate and remobilize the so-called propot lobby (promarihuana), in the form of the setting up in July 1973 of the Cannabis Action Reform Organization (C.A.R.O.), was greeted by an almost total lack of response. One can only conclude that the four million potsmokers alleged to exist by a national survey carried out for the B.B.C. television program 262“Midweek” at around the same time were not prepared to compaign publicly for the right to engage in an activity that, in its private form, offers few problems.
