Hear All Sides: CANNABIS

Our youngsters are given the idea that cannabis is cool, relaxing and harmless. From first hand experience, let me tell you otherwise.

My 15-year-old daughter decided to try some with her friends. She had a terrifying experience. She felt so ill, she couldn't breathe properly. She sat in a bush near a river for over two hours on her own, having to concentrate to keep breathing. She felt very hot and thirsty, and said if she could have got her legs to work, she would have gone into the river for a drink. She probably would have drowned, so it was a blessing her legs wouldn't work.

After two hours she managed to telephone me. When I saw her, she was as white as a sheet, with red eyes, shaking all over. She was kept in all night at the hospital on a heart monitor and felt really ill for over a week.

Since then, she has had terrifying flashbacks and panic attacks which are so bad that we've taken her back to hospital. She still gets the feeling of not being able to breathe, has headaches and numbness in her face and lips. She is terrified.

The boy who sold her the cannabis thinks it's a huge joke. The police and his parents know who he is but still he sells cannabis at school.

Cannabis causes schizophrenia and paranoia. How can we go soft on its use? - Name and address supplied, Co Durham.

CRIME

RICHARD Barker's report "Armed police surround house" (Echo, Mar 15) must be of grave concern to Darlington and the nation as a whole, as Darlington is becoming a dangerous place to reside and visit.

It is only a few days since there were people convicted of making weapons and ammunition. What with recent crimes of murder and violence, we must question the sort of society we are becoming.

Is the kind of society that The Northern Echo reports so often, the kind of society we wish to ignore? Forgiveness is one thing, the kind of violent and unforgiving society we are becoming is another.

We have only to open our eyes and ears to understand the fear and stress the citizen has to endure each day. Old people do not venture out after dark - they are at risk even during the day - yet we are told everything is well.

We ignore God's absolution at our peril if we believe we can forgive at the expense of God's law. - John Young, Crook.

SHOT AT DAWN

I AM a Royal British Legion poppy seller and a member of the Shot At Dawn campaign which aims to secure pardons for underage shell-shocked boys wrongly shot for desertion and cowardice during the First World War.

In November 2001 and January 2002, I wrote to our Prime Minister requesting he put right this dreadful miscarriage of justice and pardon the boys. He has not replied.

History tells us of the horrors of the First World War. When 16 and 17-year-old boys could mentally take no more, British authorities did not admit them to hospital for help they so desperately needed - they tied them up and shot them as cowards and deserters.

Medical research has proved these boys were very ill. Now, in the 21st Century, our Government still refuses to pardon them even though it shows compassion to hardened criminals in releasing them early from lengthy jail sentences.

These boys are the country's forgotten heroes. I urge the Prime Minister to pardon the Shot At Dawn boys, now. - Sandra Baynham, Shildon, Co Durham.

POLITICIANS

MANY thanks to Harry Mead for exposing what a bunch of charlatans politicians are, especially those that are in power at the moment (Echo, Mar 13).

Listening recently to the Social Security Secretary Alastair Darling answering questions on the present pensions fiasco, you would think everything within the pensions system was OK.

I am reminded of that saying in Animal Farm: "All animals are equal but politicians, sorry some animals, are more equal than others." - AL Carter, Redcar.

Billingham

I HAVE been a resident for over 40 years and have seen what was a town centre ahead of its time, steadily decline to one of shabbiness and neglect which, of course, reflects on Stockton council.

Now the town centre seems to be way down on the list of priorities because of certain individuals' obsession with development in the John Whitehead Park.

I don't want to see a sixth form college built in the park, when the existing college is perfectly adequate with ample car parking facilities. The park needs to be left as a park.

I am sure Billingham people don't want to lose their theatre. It has put Billingham on the map and given the town an identity. Why should we lose it just because of some Stockton council whim?

A lot of this very costly proposed development is totally unnecessary. - Shirley Southwood, Billingham.

Northallerton

I AM very pleased to see that the eyesore at the north end of town is to be developed at long last. The other two supermarkets won't lose custom to the new Safeway because there is already a Safeway in the town centre which has its own customers.

I hope when Safeway vacates its building that it doesn't become another bank, building society or charity shop. Other types of businesses need space.

My only concern is that the bottleneck at the north level crossing is going to cause major upset until the line is re-routed to the north near the new Strikes garden centre.

I am also very pleased to see that the monument to the Battle of the Standard is at long last being repaired after, unbelievably, having its bronze plaque stolen for the few coppers it would have raised in scrap. - Nick Whelan, Northallerton