According to the UK press, the sheep may have been munching on poorly-disposed-of cannabis plants, turning into wild-eyed cloven-hoofed beasts.

It’s a story that’s likely to get thrown into at least one conservative politician’s gig-bag over there when they next debate the foul herb. If it had been in Goulburn instead of Swansea, I reckon some of our pollies would do the same.

Today we’ve got two stories related to cannabis. In the first, police have seized another load of weed near Hay, on what one of our local cops described to me as a “drugs highway”. In the other story, a woman was brought before the court for sharing a little grass she used for pain relief.

Now look, I’m no expert, but surely there are bigger issues out there.

Here’s what I know for sure about cannabis:

One other thing I know: I can’t remember the last time I heard a story about a cannabis-crazed lunatic punching people in public or tearing up an emergency room. I’m also struggling to remember any incident where someone died because they smoked too much weed.

Sure, there are cases where people have ended up with mental illnesses due to cannabis abuse, but these surely pale in comparison to the harm caused by legal drugs like tobacco, alcohol and coffee.

Wait a minute? Coffee? Oh yeah, caffeine is a pretty powerful stimulant and lots of people think it can keep them awake on long road trips (it can’t) or help them sober up faster (it won’t).

Meanwhile, all tobacco does is make you smell while it kills you.

I don’t think cannabis should be illegal as a painkiller when a variant of heroin is administered daily in every hospital around the world. I also don’t think cannabis should be illegal as a recreational drug when we let people drink alcohol despite all the drink-driving deaths and social problems it causes.

-STEPHEN MUDD