MEDIA ROLE IN DRUG ISSUE TYPICALLY 'LOW-QUALITY'

Re "Rasta MP wants dope," Calgary Herald Dec. 15. You report on a newly
elected New Zealand MP who said he will carry on smoking marijuana after
taking office and demands the drug be made legal. It is sad to see
prevailing anti-drug ideology makes you blindly regurgitate the propaganda
that makes up the bulk of the information about the drug issue the media
brings us these days.

You write "the Green Party supports Tanczos's stance on marijuana and its
plans have horrified churchman and community leaders, who point to a new
study showing that more than one in five drivers who died had been smoking
marijuana in the hours before they crashed." Such figures are so high a
child can see they cannot be real.

In reality, traces of marijuana remain detectable in the blood for four
weeks after consumption, which is the cause for relatively high numbers of
drivers testing positive. Given that effects of marijuana cease a few hours
after intake, in just a small proportion of the instances the effects may
have been present at the time of the accident.

Your uncritical repetition of second-hand comments on low-quality research
typifies the role the media play in the drug issue.

Harry Bego

Utrcht, Holland