In a perfect example of exactly how the drug war is played out with regard to the British press, a successful author has told how she is convinced cannabis played a part in her sons suicide.

Using only government provided rhetoric as her reference points, Gruffalo creator Julia Donaldson "had no doubt that cannabis worsened her son's decline", and she was given a large article in the Telegraph to tell her side of the story.

Yet there are thousands of people who have had positive experiences using cannabis. Alcoholics and class A drug addicts who used cannabis to rid themselves of other, far more addictive and dangerous drugs.

But so far as the press is concerned their story counts for nothing and is for the most part, ignored by the mainstream press.

Perhaps if they had a book to sell, as Mrs Donaldson currently does, they would have their story told by the Telegraph too? 

An award-winning children's author has welcomed the Government's decision to reclassify cannabis after revealing it exacerbated the mental illness that led her son to commit suicide.

Julia Donaldson, creator of The Gruffalo, has told how her son Hamish, 25, died after walking in front of a train. She did not believe cannabis was directly responsible but was in no doubt that it worsened his decline. 

This will lead to tougher sentences for possession.

The move goes against the Government's advisory panel of drug experts who say it will not deter millions from smoking the drug.

The panel said there was "a probable, but weak, causal link between psychotic illness, including schizophrenia, and cannabis use". But it found cannabis played only "a modest role" in the development of psychiatric conditions.

Hamish Donaldson was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which causes extreme mood swings, after showing erratic behaviour at school and spending time with "some very bad company". He spent periods in a local psychiatric hospital before being admitted to Carstairs, a high security hospital in Lanarkshire.

Shortly after his grandmother died in 2003, he assaulted his father Malcolm while drunk and briefly went to prison. A week after being released, he killed himself after a row with his girlfriend. He had been taking cocaine.

The Home Secretary's decision to reclassify cannabis comes less than five years after it was downgraded to class C.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk