THE NEED FOR WEED IS REAL, INDEED

Editor, the Times:

I do not know if this letter will see the light of day in the
Abbotsford-Mission Times, because it contains corrections to the
misinformation contained in a recent letter to the editor on medical
marijuana, the tone of which seems to harken back to the time when the
film Reefer Madness came out, in 1936.

Firstly, the reference to "mother Mary" in the Beatles song Let It Be,
is not, as stated in the editorial, "code words" referring to
marijuana, but to Paul McCartney's mother, Mary McCartney, who passed
away when he was young.

Secondly, as a law enforcement worker, I can tell you that medical
marijuana is not condoned by the federal government, as the article
contends.

More misinformation which denies the truth of the matter.

Finally, (by the way, I should clarify that I am not a user of
marijuana, medical or otherwise) research done by the Scripps Research
Institute in California shows that the active ingredient in marijuana,
THC, prevents the formation of deposits in the brain associated with
Alzheimer's Disease.

Investigators at Columbia University published clinical trial data in
2007 showing that HIV/AIDS patients who inhaled cannabis four times
daily experienced substantial increases in food intake with little
evidence of discomfort and no impairment of cognitive performance.
They concluded that smoked marijuana has a clear medical benefit in
HIV-positive patients.

According to an approved statement from the U.S. Department of Justice
in 1988, "Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects.
But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the
extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented
cannabis-induced fatality.

In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as a
result of drug-related toxicity."

I would suggest that editors planning to publish articles condemning
any aspect of personal or social behavior or practice that they find
personally offensive familiarize themselves with the facts behind
their assumptions before printing them as truths in the interest of
forwarding their own personal agenda.

John Robles

Ventura, California