SAFE UNTIL PROVEN HARMFUL

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.)