GRASS NOT HARMLESS AT ALL

Dear Editor,

Re: "Drugs: Marijuana safer than water" & "Drugs: Harmful pot claims
unfounded," Letters, Oct.30, Langley Advance. Maybe marijuana is
safer than the water that's flushed down the toilet after it's been
used; furthermore, it's been solidly proven that marijuana
consumption is indeed damaging to the human body and mind.

As a former frequent cannabis consumer, I, along with many of my
former (some still) cannabis-consuming peers whom I've bumped into
these last dozen years or so, can attest to the permanent damage that
marijuana can cause to the consumer's body and mind.

Scientific proof of such potential damage? For one, there are the
startling facts published in an article last September 17 in London's
Guardian newspaper; it was authored by professor of psychiatry at the
Institute of Psychiatry and hospital consultant, Robin Murray:

"In the mid-90s, a Dutch psychiatrist named Don Lintzen, from the
University Clinic in Amsterdam, noted that people with schizophrenia
who consumed a lot of cannabis had a much worse outcome than those
who didn't. This was confirmed by other studies, including a
four-year follow-up at the Maudsley Hospital. Those who continued to
smoke cannabis were three times more likely to develop a chronic
illness than those who did not consume the drug," Murray learned.

"Why does cannabis exacerbate psychosis? In schizophrenia, the
hallucinations result from an excess of a brain chemical called
dopamine. All of the drugs that cause psychosis -- amphetamines,
cocaine and cannabis -- increase the release of dopamine in the
brain. In this way, they are distinct from illicit drugs such as
heroin or morphine, which do not make psychosis worse."

If pro-pot people propose legalizing cannabis possession for
practical reasons - e.g., less pressure on already-overburdened
law-enforcement and justice systems - that's a clear and perhaps
debatable motive. However, there's simply way too much of the
media-propagated misinformation out there implying - or outright
declaring - to our impressionable youth that cannabis consumption is harmless.

Frank G. Sterle, Jr.,
White Rock