IN YOUR editorial of April 6, "That pot problem," you confess: "We do
not support the decriminalization of marijuana, even for medicinal
purposes, as we don't believe the medical evidence supports it."
Exactly what evidence?

Typically, medicinal herbs and drugs are considered safe until proven
harmful and not criminal until unsafe. Garlic and St. John's Wort
have never been subject to double-blind studies, yet we do not
criminalize people for using them or insist they pay more for new
experimental brand-name drugs with harmful side-effects, such as
calcium channel blockers.

How do you justify knocking medicinal cannabis users like Terry Parker
and Lynn Harichy while Health Canada fails to test the majority of new
herbs and drugs added to store shelves every year? How do you justify
wasting tax dollars and law-enforcement resources warehousing
otherwise law-abiding recreational cannabis users in our prisons while
dangerous offenders and drunk drivers are granted early release?

I do not support cannabis prohibition because not one of the many
studies on the issue or the evidence gleaned from over 60 years of
prohibition, or Edmonton's booming black market supports it.

Matthew M. Elrod

(Marijuana is illegal. Medicinal use of the substance will likely
change as evidence mounts for it.)