Misinformation on pot is excessive

I find the article, Misinformation on drugs blasted (May 24),
disturbing. First, school authorities have a moral obligation and a duty to
ensure information they present is valid and correct, and not to perpetuate
ignorance, stupidity and intolerance. By engaging in the controversial
"warondrugs" through propaganda, school boards have failed in their
education mandate to separate fact from fiction, dispel myths and
promote truth and understanding a failure even more reprehensible in an
era of high technology where reliable information is available easily.

Second, when the RCMP invoke "reliable medical sources," how
can we not question the motivation of the police in circulating
misinformation and promoting the marijuana stereotype, thereby maintaining
marijuana prohibition? The Le Dain Commission into the nonmedical use of
drugs, filed its report 25 years ago. It was extensive and has been
recognized as an authority by the scientific community and widely used as
reference. Its findings
and recommendations on marijuana are still current.

Last, in the light of the overwhelming amount of propaganda, I cannot but
feel suspicious when Harold Kalant explains that, in regard to marijuana
"dependence" is a more accurate word than "addiction." As a regular daily
user, I have stopped using it for several days or weeks or months at a time
because I simply forgot, or did not feel like it, or because supply was
scarce.

Marijuana users are being arrested, criminalized, fined, fired from their
jobs and put into jails, and some have even been killed on account of
marijuana prohibition. If a private organization had so blatantly and so
grossly misinformed the public, it would have been prosecuted. Public
organizations also should be held accountable for the harm they cause through
misinformation.

Lucia Del Santo
London, Ontario