PROHIBITION, NOT MARIJUANA RUINING OUR LIVES

To the Editor,

General Barry McCaffrey is going to wage war againest
full time workers? In the report from the Health and Human Services.{
the Ogdensburg Journal Wed. 8 Sept. 1999 } Barry McCaffrey states "
the typical drug user is not poor and unemployed" "the report dispels
notions that most drug users are burned out and disconnected from the
main stream." " 7.7 percent of workers had used illegal drugs in the
past month." McCaffrey's statements are so general it opens the door
to some serious questions. " used illegal drugs." Which one? Could it
be marijuana?

Research is out that states marijuana is less additive than
coffee.

In order, from most additive to least additive,- Alcholol, herion,
nicotine, cocaine, caffeine, and marijuana.[ source Dr. Jack E.
Henningfield, PH.D. for NIDA]. A report on a study by the National
Toxicology Program states that marijuana does not cause cancer.[
Ogdensburg Journal, Thrus. 30 Jan. 1997]

Research done at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. They studied 1300
marijuana smokers over a 15 year period. " Does not appear that long term
marijuana use causes any significant permanent harm or loss to intellectual
ability. [ The Journal of Epidemiology, May 1999 issue.]

McCaffrey states " in the past month." 30 days covers the privacy of
an employee's home. McCaffrey is all ready sending employers in to
there employee's personal lives with mandatory drug testing.

Drug testing costed companys $600 million dollars in 1998.[ the
Progressive Magazine, May 1999.] Does he want a drug test every
morning a worker punches in? If an employer is getting good
productivity why trouble the waters with a drug enforcement regime?

McCaffrey's statements " drug users are not all burnonts and
disconnected from the main stream." Well then that could mean they are
good workers, good parents, pay there bills, own nice homes, and
otherwise law abiding citizens! This didn't make it to the local
papers here. It was published in the Los Angeles Times thrus 25
Feb.1999. A letter was sent to Barry McCaffrey. More than two dozen
scholars and activists said they were "deeply troubled" by McCaffrey's
"inaccurate and misleading statements" in opposition to needle
exchange programs and medicinal marijuana, and other drug issues.

Some of the people that signed the letter: Harvard sociologist Orlando
Patterson, Kevin Zeese, President of Common Sense for Drug Policy,
Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, San Francisco Mayor Willie
Brown, scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and several of his colleagues at
Harvard University, and representatives of public health groups
involved in AIDS research and other issues.

Prohibition is ruining lives, not drugs.

LAWRENCE W. SEGUIN
Lisbon, NY