WE NEED MARIJUANA

Thanks for comparing the dangers of OxyContin and marijuana ("Ever seeking
escape," editorial, April 20). The hypocrisy of most people supporting
militant drug prohibition is apparent as soon as the debate addresses
specific substances. This is no exception.

Marijuana is, by at least one criterion, the safest pharmaceutical
substance that is also recreationally used. I base this assertion on a
pharmacologic concept called the "therapeutic window," the range of drug
doses sufficient to treat symptoms without causing intolerable side effects.

For opiates, this window is relatively small. It's the same way with
cocaine, alcohol and even aspirin. Two pills might ease your pain, a
hundred might kill you. But there is no lethal dose of marijuana, meaning
that clinical "overdoses" simply result in the patient getting too high.
Since inhaled marijuana vapors (but not ingested THC) is easy to dose, this
form of administration virtually eliminates the concept of a clinical overdose.

This drug helps cancer and AIDS patients stay fit enough to cope. Anyone
denying that fact is either ignorant or dishonest.

Please, oppose the placement of prohibitionists in the legislative,
executive, and judicial branches of our government.

Danny Terwey
Santa Cruz, Calif.