REEFER MADNESS

Let's stop scare tactics and recognize drug's benefits

Pete Holzmann, whose Sept. 13 letter attacked medical marijuana,
should follow his own advice on seeking factual information
("Marijuana not as beneficial as writer wants us to believe"). I did a
Google search and found that marijuana does not appear as harmful as
he would have us believe. A more comprehensive assessment of
marijuana's medical efficacy can be found at http://www.mpp.org/library.

The pharmaceutical industry has a vested financial interest in
demonizing medical marijuana, because it would lose billions if the
product were legalized for medical use. Sales of countless overpriced
prescription medications would plummet if cannabis was available to
patients who could benefit from its use.

All medications have some level of toxicity, but the adverse effect of
marijuana compared to many of our prescription drugs is minimal. How
many patients have died from Vioxx, a supposedly safe medication?
Overdose deaths from smoking marijuana are zero.

Let's end the era of reefer madness and deal honestly with marijuana
as a safe and effective medical product.

Robert Wiley

Colorado Springs