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

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1361/a10.html