Two points in regard to your July 2 editorial, "Marijuana Impact - New
studies make some troubling discoveries."

First, the science is shoddy. The fact that marijuana raises dopamine
levels just like cocaine and heroin do says absolutely nothing about its
likelihood to lead to the use of other drugs. Anything that causes
pleasure does the same thing. Chocolate has been shown to do the same
thing. Is chocolate, then, a gateway drug as well?

Furthermore, the conditions used in the studies reported are completely
unrealistic, and no conclusions can really be drawn from them which
apply to real use of the drug. The scientists who wrote the articles
acknowledge that there is no basis in these studies for the gateway
hypothesis, but the press, including your paper, seems to be acting as
if there were.

Second, whether or not marijuana is dangerous, criminal prohibition of
this substance is impractical and unjustifiable. If we wished to
prohibit all that is dangerous, we should be banning skydiving,
cigarettes, fatty foods and many other things. Prohibition failed with
alcohol, and it is failing now with marijuana. How dangerous the drug
actually is has no relevance to this.

Greg Goldmakher
Dallas