FUELLING THE POT DEBATE

To the Editor:

Re: The Great Marijuana Cover-Up

Many of your readers do not like the bust at Holy Smoke. I have long
wondered how effective marijuana is for medical usage.

In my travels I have asked several Doctors of Traditional Chinese
Medicine (DTCM) what they think about it. None of them endorsed its
usage. One explained it to me this way: In TCM we sometimes use very
toxic substances, such as snake venom. In such cases it is important
to carefully monitor the dosages and measure the effects upon the
patient. Marijuana is a toxic substance and the same precautions
should be followed. In TCM the doctors seek to bring balance to the
person. Is the patient too yin or too yang? Is the patient too hot,
too cool, too damp or too dry? Marijuana is strongly yin. Why would
a competent doctor prescribe or sell marijuana to a patient who is too
yin, too hot and too dry? The opposite is indicated.

The big question is that of responsibility.

Nobody producing and selling marijuana has accepted any responsibility
for the damage they may be causing to those who smoke it. We seldom
hear about the health problems caused by marijuana, and there is a lot
of denial by the proponents of the substance. We hear about the
effects of second-hand cigarette smoke. If young women smoked
marijuana when they were pregnant, and the new baby is subject to
daily marijuana smoke in the home, what effect will that have on the
child's health?

Will those who trade in marijuana put warning labels on the packets,
like on cigarette packages? Who does one sue? Shouldn't those
people damaged sue the growers and the sellers for millions (or
billions) of dollars? After all, the B.C. government has just been
given court approval to sue foreign tobacco companies.

So far there is only one recorded death due directly to marijuana A
coroner's inquest determined that a 36-year-old man in Wales who
smoked six joints a day for eleven years died of cannabis toxicity in
August 2003. I doubt that he would have survived eleven years if he
had been smoking B.C. Bud. Laboratories in Germany and Switzerland
deny the death was due to marijuana as the man had only "moderate"
levels of cannabis toxicity for a smoker.

Smoking marijuana has often been cited as a cause of short-term and
long-term mental impairment. The link between marijuana use and
schizophrenia is generally accepted in the psychiatric community, the
most vulnerable people being teenagers. A Swedish study concluded
that 13 per cent of schizophrenia cases could be avoided if all
cannabis use were prevented.

And what was up with the man most recently arrested in the Holy Smoke
bust who decided to remove his clothes at the police station? It
seems he was expecting an anal search. At first I thought he may have
smoked too much, but then I thought that this was perhaps the new way
of smoking a joint.

Recent reports from veterinarians show that more and more dogs are
getting into their owners stashes and require treatment. With a small
amount of pot a dog may feel sleepy one minute, then excitable the
next. The dog's heart rate and temperature will typically drop. It
will have dry mouth and will dribble urine. Most dogs can sleep-off
a small amount of pot, but dogs that consume a large amount may
require fluids and warming, and will have to eat activated charcoal to
offset the high. The report did not say what happens if dogs smoke
pot.

Roger Pratt

Nelson, B.C.