HAS THE TIME COME TO END POT PROHIBITION?

Re: Ex-mayors call for end to pot prohibition, Nov. 24

Young British Columbians should beware the advice of the ex-mayors of
Vancouver.

As a neuroscientist, I have never been able to understand why anybody
would be so foolish as to monkey with the biochemistry of their most
precious organ, their brain.

Our laboratory first reported on the damage done to the brain by
marijuana in 1972. I later had the opportunity to testify before a
U.S. Congressional Committee on our findings.

In more than 50 years of managing young scientists, I have lost only
three. They believed they could plan and execute experiments while
using marijuana. They could not. Marijuana had interfered with their
ability to think clearly.

Drug addiction is analogous to an infectious disease. One user seduces another.

Vancouver has a terrible problem dealing with the wasted lives of the
addicted community. But that problem should not be visited upon drug
free communities in this province and across Canada. Criminals make
money by addicting the foolish.

It may be too late for the older generation, but by rejecting their
advice and saying no, the younger generation could eliminate the problem.

Patrick L. McGeer

Vancouver