FALSE MARIJUANA CLAIMS

I am writing in response to the Feb. 15 article "Renewed tolerance of
marijuana is taking hold." I am an honors student at the University of
Illinois at Chicago. I cannot believe your newspaper would print
sensationalistic garbage like that.

The article claims that a given side effect of pot smoking is a duller
memory. This claim has no scientific backing. According to Microsoft's
Encarta 97 encyclopedia, "Consistent evidence that marijuana induces or
causes brain damage does not exist. Check your source. The New England
Journal of Medicine, the Canadian Health Council, the Australian Health
Commission, and countless government studies come to the same conciliation
as I do. Marijuana poses far less health risk than alcohol or tobacco, two
legal and highly addictive drugs.

I have been using marijuana since I was 14, and I am now 19 and still
using. In the past five years, I have achieved a "B" average for four
semesters of high school and one in college. I also posted straight A's my
entire junior year of high school.

The Herald's false claims are more mind dulling than a plant that grows in
al 50 of the United States. The editors should examine front page articles
more closely if they don't want their paper to lose its highly regarded
credibility.

Matt Ingratta Chicago