HARMFUL POT CLAIMS UNFOUNDED

Dear Editor,

Marijuana myths make me mad. It seems that the most consistent
argument made in favour of drug prohibition is that drugs are illegal
because they are harmful. I would like to challenge that idea,
particularly in the case of marijuana.

Studies commissioned by the U.S. federal government that were
specifically designed to find a link between marijuana smoke and lung
cancer found no such link. In fact, recent studies have shown that
when a tumour in a test tube or in a lab rat is treated with THC [an
active component of marijuana] the tumour shrinks by up to one half
its mass.

In another study, rats were given a weight-loss drug that blocks
cannabinoid receptors. When they were given this drug, they grew
cancerous tumours. When they were given THC the tumours
disappeared.

THC stimulates your body's natural cancer fighters, and improves
individual cells' ability to resist cancer. You would think that this
would be newsworthy information, no? Yet for some reason, nobody is
reporting this.

I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but if this was any
other substance that showed even half the cancer-fighting potential of
marijuana, it would be all over the front page headlines. After all,
these studies are being done by the U.S. government and Harvard
University, not drug legalization lobbyists.

Studies have shown that marijuana does not cause schizophrenia or
psychosis. Schizophrenia rates have remained the same while marijuana
use has increased exponentially. That alone proves there is no causal
link. And yet Stephen Harper is wasting your tax dollars to "study"
the "link" between marijuana and schizophrenia.

Marijuana does not cause emphysema. Marijuana has the opposite effect
on your lungs to tobacco, and in fact, allows your lungs to absorb
more oxygen, not less. Marijuana does not kill brain cells. In fact,
marijuana protects brain cells from damage, and moderate use appears
to slow the progression of Alzheimer's.

The human race has been smoking marijuana for over 10,000 years, and
not a single person has ever died from it. According to Dr. Lester
Grinspoon, professor emeritus of Psychiatry at Harvard University,
marijuana is one of the least dangerous and least toxic substances
known to man.

For all of you who claim that marijuana is a dangerous threat, I ask
you this: What sources of information do you have that Harvard
University and Dr. Grinspoon don't?

Travis Erbacher

Langley