Regarding your editorial, Pot controls still needed (Aug.
2).

While the recent headlines surrounding the pot debate rage on, your
editorial proves many are still mired in ignorance on the topic of
medicinal marijuana and cannot shed their stereotypical ideas of
marijuana users.

It is true marijuana is a banned substance and that marijuana users
are breaking the law when they smoke.

Still, the team of monkeys you had working around the clock to figure
this out forgot that, while "the world has changed since the Bee Gees
went polyester," laws governing the use of marijuana have not.

So we are currently left with laws that fail to recognize the
legitimate medicinal value of drugs like marijuana.

As for the implied higher potency of marijuana since the '60s leading
to increased fatalities, your reference to a 1994 study on the subject
fails to add whether or not any of the 276 drivers found to be under
the influence of marijuana when they died had anything else in their
systems at the time.

Something tells me they did.

Moreover, I find it hard to believe cancer or AIDS patients who smoke
to reduce their pain were any of those 276.

As well, bike gangs would no longer be doing any pot peddling if the
law would simply soften up a bit, so as to enable medicinal users to
get it from other sources, such as the government, which could then
regulate it.

You say society is not ready to open its doors to marijuana's
recreational use, but Canadians are not asking for that.

They are asking for its validity as a medicinal drug.

The fact is, cannabis hurts people far less than tobacco and
alcohol.

Maybe we should be plugging the societal leaks in places where the
floodwaters are flowing much more rapidly.

PAUL-MARK RENDON,
London