MARIJUANA-RELATED CLAIMS MUST NOT GO UNCHALLENGED

Regarding Rory Leishman's column Ontario should continue to fight
menace of marijuana (June 27).

I would like to file an official complaint against The London Free
Press and Rory Leishman for what I consider to be lying to the public
in an effort to foster discrimination against marijuana users and drug
law reform advocates.

Not only is he misleading the public as to the supposed "dangers" of
marijuana, the supposed "success" of prohibition and eradication
efforts, his insistence that marijuana is dangerous to life and health
runs contrary to the known science on the subject.

Leishman says: "Marijuana is not harmless. Despite the contrary claims
of infatuated pot heads, there is overwhelming scientific evidence
that cannabis is no less dangerous to life and health than alcohol and
tobacco."

This is not true. Science shows that marijuana is safer than table
salt, and far safer than either tobacco or alcohol. Pot has dozens of
proven medical applications, it has never killed anyone in 5,000 years
of recorded history (not even water can make that claim) and it is
impossible to overdose on it. Even when smoked, the benefits of pot
use far outweigh any dangers, and there is much science to support
that.

One need look no further than the 2002 Senate Committee Report on
Drugs for proof: http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/committee_senrep.asp?language=e&parl=37&Ses=1&comm_id=85.

Also, recent science out of Germany shows how cannabinoids stimulate
the body's production of TIMP-1, which helps healthy cells resist
cancer invasion. www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20071226/pot-slows-cancer-in-test-tube

Leishman goes on: "No legislator with a prudent regard for the health and well being of
Canadians would compound these problems by legalizing marijuana." Actually, science
shows that the prohibition on marijuana is causing more damage to the user and society
than the drug itself ever could. Again:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/committee_senrep.asp?language=e&parl=37&Ses=1&comm_id=85.

The notion that legalizing marijuana would increase rather than
decrease danger runs contrary to all know scientific evidence. What
Leishman is doing is similar to someone insisting that the Earth is
flat.

He goes on: "The police expend vast resources in a perpetual effort to
enforce the Highway Traffic Act, yet no one would suggest that the
Ontario legislature should give up the struggle and legalize speeding,
careless driving or any of the other all-too-frequent traffic
infractions."

In comparing the personal use of marijuana to deadly law-breaking like
speeding and careless driving, he is once again deliberately
misleading the public.

He goes on: "Besides, the aim of the police is to curtail crime at
reasonable cost. By this standard, there is no reason for police,
educational and health authorities to give up on the struggle to
curtail marijuana trafficking, addiction and abuse."

This is also ridiculously untrue. When measured from a cost/benefit
ratio, the prohibition of marijuana has proven to be one of the most
wildly counterproductive policies ever implemented. To suggest
otherwise is not only folly, it is an out and out lie. Categorically
untrue.

Sure, people are entitled to their opinions, and I am all for
unrestricted freedom of speech, but when a publication like The Free
Press prints a column that is so obviously designed to harm marijuana
users, to undermine the good efforts of drug law reform activists --
and so full of lies to boot -- it must not go unchallenged.

Russell Barth

Licensed Medical Marijuana Patient

PAIDOC-Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis