MARIJUANA HAS VALUE, BUT ACKNOWLEDGE RISKS

CLARK LAKE - Dr. Timur Baruti, as reported by the newspaper March 17,
told the Human Relations Commission that marijuana is not addictive,
not a gateway drug and has many positive health benefits. He added
that hospitals, pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies oppose
legalization because it will hurt their business, a claim I believe is
not true.

The federal government has made the use, the importation and the
growing of marijuana illegal. If legal, it would be a great source of
business for drug manufacturers. Reduction of nausea induced by
cancer-fighting drugs has been demonstrated certainly. There are other
drugs equally effective, of course. However, marijuana has the
additional effect of inducing a drug euphoria, which is why people use
it.

My primary concern with Baruti's statements is his failure to
understand the serious effect it has on the adolescent brain, profound
loss of memory retention, thus school failure and failure of
psycho-social maturation. The same thing can be said of other
substances that alter state of consciousness.

During the last 20 years of my practice I was associated with Father
Paul Lynch of Lumen Christi High School in a program that served the
parents of adolescents involved in self-destructive behavior,
primarily due to daily use of marijuana, and served as a medical
director of a recovery program for drug-addicted adolescent kids. I
know what I'm talking about.

I personally have no objection to a cancer patient using marijuana,
but I certainly don't want that person driving down the highway I am
on.

Jack P. Bentley