This [letter] is in response to an article I found posted [online] in
the Media Awareness Project, called "Skip the pot, get a life" by
Joseph Howard [letters, May 24].

First of all, I want to thank Mr. Howard for expressing his feelings
about the subject. This is a free country and people can say whatever
they want about anything, but then I can respond to it in kind =D2
which is what makes our First Amendment freedom so wonderful!

Mr. Howard states that he feels people like me, who support "cannabis
liberation," are "whiners." Well, I have tried to live without
cannabis, but life was completely unbearable for me. I am now an
extremely grateful member of the OMMA program (Oregon Medicinal
Marijuana Act, card #1019), and it has given me my life back. I no
longer have to support the "evil" element that prospers because of our
current worse than useless anti-drug (marijuana) laws, and technically
be a "criminal" =D2 while I'm also having to spend most of my
available money on "black-market medicine." Now, I can grow, use and
possess a reasonable amount of medicinal marijuana legally!

As far as the pro/con arguments about marijuana use go, I've read the
research available online, and continue to follow the progress of it
as medical researchers are gradually doing more and more experiments
with marijuana. The research that Mr. Howard alluded to pertaining to
marijuana's influence on seratonin and testosterone is still
inconclusive, but, if anything, it points to reasons for marijuana's
positive potential. I have no doubt that many valuable drugs will be
isolated from the plant in the future, now that medical researchers
are being allowed to experiment with it.

Mr. Howard states that legalizing cannabis is "trivial" and that I'm
"misguided." I honestly don't understand how any rational, intelligent
person could come to that conclusion. Apparently, he had a bad
experience with marijuana himself, and now he is sure it's bad for
everybody, and he doesn't want people like me - who need it - to be
allowed to legally [use it]. I find his attitude both selfish and
self-righteous, but this is America and he is welcome to express his
beliefs, just as I am. I would hope that he will have a more open mind
about the subject in the future - and perhaps even give it another
chance himself - because he sounds like someone who needs to get high
and chill out.

Another aspect of marijuana's medical use is the healing properties it
has for psychiatric illnesses. Besides all the physical ailments it
heals for me, the change in my mental attitude is so radical that any
competent psychiatrist would have to recommend whatever it was I took
that made me feel so much better (if they thought it was a "pill" that
is; many of them would probably be horrified to know that a little
green bud could do so much good!). Hopefully, the healing properties
will soon be researched more, and then we'll all know more about it.
The influence on seratonin that Mr. Howard mentioned is related to its
influence on the brain, and may be responsible for the phenomenon of
"munchies" (appetite stimulation) and "crashing" (sleeping) - and
there are many other chemicals at work, too. I couldn't begin to go
into that stuff here, but all the information is easily available to
Mr. Howard (and all of us) online.

There are so many extraordinary healing properties of cannabis that
it's really miraculous! I would recommend to Mr. Howard that he do a
little more research online, and then he might be a little less
inclined to slam marijuana and its users.

As far as all the many other incredible uses for cannabis besides
medicinal, I would "highly" recommend reading a book called Hemp:
Lifeline to the Future, by Chris Conrad. His eloquent little book is a
classic!

I am personally convinced that cannabis is the most valuable plant on
planet Earth, and mankind would do well to start making use of it
again, as we did for thousands of years previously! I wish Mr. Howard
peace, and hope he finds happiness. He sounds like such an unhappy
person. I'd personally recommend that he get high, but he says that
marijuana doesn't work for him anymore, and that it makes him feel
"stupid" etc. I think that he's fooling himself by blaming the
marijuana for that. I can function just fine on it myself! He sounds
like someone who's been brainwashed, though; if he would give
marijuana another try, it just might work for him again!

Keep On Growing! Peace!!!

David Malcolm Currie, No address provided

[Editor's note: A letter printed in our May 24 issue by Joseph Howard
- "Skip the pot, get a life" - apparently created a firestorm of
controversy across America, after being posted on Web sites such as
the one run by the Media Awareness Project. Because of the number of
responses, some of the letters below are appearing only online.]