Mark Mealclaff (February 6) seems to think that the sentencing of the farmer for 18 years for growing drugs is severe, compared to an English sentence. I have, unfortunately, to agree with him because our prisons in the UK are full to overcrowding. Prisoners are now being let out early without completing their sentences to make more room for other new offenders.
On the other hand, if our governments had built more jails over the last decades and given more sentencing powers to judges, drug offenders could be given the correct sentences for their crimes.
Drugs kill people and cause many problems for families, neighbours and the community. Was 18 years too short to be a deterrent to others?