IS LEGALIZATION THE ANSWER? WEIGHING THE MERITS OF MARIJUANA

NO NEW IDEAS

Re: "Marijuana not without health risks - In legalization debate, the
facts are often overlooked, says Itai Danovitch," Monday Viewpoints.

Professor Danovitch repeats the same vague but ominous warnings about
the health risks of marijuana that we've been hearing since 1937,
when the idea that smoking pot was dangerous and addictive first
gained widespread acceptance.

Since he specializes in addictions, I can understand how Danovitch is
predisposed to define things in those terms, but his article is
contradictory. He labels the claim that "cannabis is not physically
addictive" as misinformation, but in the next paragraph, he states
that "addiction to marijuana does not cause dramatic physical dependence."

He goes on to attribute unnamed problems at work, in education and
relationships to marijuana use, but I believe that could also simply
be called "life."

He then speculates, but offers no proof, that marijuana use "may"
have a negative effect on the psychiatric problems of "people with
preexisting vulnerabilities" like schizophrenia or that it "may"
actually make problems like anxiety and depression worse, in spite of
the claims of people with those conditions that smoking relieves
their symptoms.

I do agree with the professor that it's important to make a "decision
on the basis of accurate facts." Unfortunately, there were precious
few facts, and even fewer new ideas in his article.

Michael Scrima, Dallas