NOT PLEASED WITH INCUMBENT'S SUPPORT FOR LEGALIZING POT

To the editor: The Salem News reported on Oct. 15 that Rep. Ted
Speliotis is leaning toward support of a bill to legalize and tax
marijuana. He further said, "I don't buy into, 'It's an entry-level
drug.'" I would like to know if Speliotis has spoken to heartbroken
parents whose narcotic-addicted sons or daughters were introduced to
the drug world by first using marijuana.

My personal experience in conducting group and individual counseling
with drug addicts and adult probationers convicted of drug-related
felonies, and, as a secondary-school psychologist, talking with high
school students, is that for many of them marijuana was their initial
drug experience. I have served on governor-appointed task forces in
Texas and Georgia to formulate drug prevention and treatment policies.

The knowledge I gained in those years reaffirmed my position that
marijuana can, in fact, be a gateway drug. In addition, in my career
as school psychologist, I have seen students at 8 in the morning who
are "high" and not in a state of mind conducive to learning. In the
adolescent years, the brain is still in development and can be
seriously affected by the use of alcohol and marijuana.

In "Principles of Addiction Medicine," pediatricians Sharon Levy and
John Knight write that "Marijuana use is associated with multiple
health problems, including ... long-term adverse neuro-cognitive
effects on executive functions such as focus, attention and ability to
filter out irrelevant information. Chronic users are at risk of
developing the well-described 'a-motivational syndrome,' leading to a
slow, passive withdrawal from school, work and recreational
activities."

Just as not every adolescent who drinks alcohol becomes an alcoholic,
so not every adolescent who experiments with marijuana will go on to
become addicted to heroin or other narcotics.

But what is certain is that legalizing marijuana for adults will make
the product more widely available to and used by adolescents (as is
alcohol), with the accompanying health and social consequences.

As my grandmother used to say, "Resist beginnings, all too late the
cure." And, as for Mr. Speliotis, the voters should not buy the type
of public policy (legalized marijuana) he will sell us if re-elected.
The cost to our sons and daughters will be too high. We need to vote
him out of office.

Claire M. Callahan

Topsfield