NOT IN SUPPORT OF DRUGS, BUT MORE INFORMED LETTERS

To the Editor:

I wish to raise my voice for more informed letter writing to the
Nelson Daily News. Even, perhaps, to the point where people
correctly refer to the quotes they themselves have put into their
letters. But most certainly when they are giving statistical information.

NDN reporter Colin Payne in an article about Shambhala said that "It
can be argued that many accepted indulgences such as alcohol and junk
food are equally harmful and much more readily available (than other drugs)."

But a recent letter referring to Mr. Payne's article criticizes him
and implies that he has said; "Drunkenness is an indulgence." Mr.
Payne never said that drunkenness was acceptable. Again I urge
people to respond to what writers are actually saying.

I read in this same recent letter to the editor that "scores of
international studies have shown that one in ten marijuana smokers
will get schizophrenia later in life." I thought that this was a
very alarming statistic, if true. It turns out that it is not
true. There are indeed many studies about the use of marijuana and
schizophrenia and the thinking of the experts is that it is
inadvisable for those predisposed to schizophrenia to become habitual
smokers of marijuana. That is a very different story than that it
causes schizophrenia. This misconception could have been rectified by
the letter writer by doling some research. Fear mongering is irresponsible.

While it is very tragic that anyone would die of a drug overdose "an
exhaustive search of the literature finds no credible reports of
deaths induced by marijuana" (ref: DAWN - the US Drug Abuse Warning
Network). Actually in the United States (the stats I was able to get
in a hurry) about 400,000 people a year are killed by a drug
- -tobacco. Aspirin interestingly kills the same number of people as
heroin. These stats are from the National Centre on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University which anyone can look up on
the internet.

I am not supporting drug use - I am actually supporting more informed
letter writing where people do their homework before writing things
that others could misconstrue as the truth. I know that letters to
the editor are a citizen's "right" or "privilege" but using those
letters to give out misinformation is irresponsible

Karen Lee
Crescent Valley, B.C.