MARIJUANA LEADS TO BETTER HEALTH

Editor: I would like to respond to Mr. Bucholtz' statments (The Times, Aug.
14) regarding cannabis legalization and its medical use.

Most medical professionals now agree that most, if not all cannabis use is
for medical purposes, whether for sleep, pain relief, stress etc.
Furthermore, what's been called "recreational use" by the media is defined
as "bringing one's self back to health" in any dictionary, and doing
something recreational is always a good healthy activity, even if it has
harm assoiciated with it.

As for the connection tobacco use and cannabis, it's fraught with errors.
First, tobacco is one of our biggest killers at 50,000 dead Canadians a
year, while cannabis has never had a reported death ever. Though both are
smoked, tobacco smoke is a toxic vaso-constrictor that tightens the airways
and causes cancerous lesions, while cannabis smoke is a non-toxic
vaso-diolator that opens the airways and is a safe effective expectorant of
unwanted toxins.

Next, he claims the success of anti-tobacco programs are leading to a
decline in its use, but fails to mention that they only work in a
regulated, legal environment. The war on drugs is not working. It is time
to start focusing on what works - education, treatment, prevention, and
individual responsibility.

How would making cannabis legal and less available to children by focusing
on education, treatment and prevention, be going "the other direction"?

Chris Goodwin,

Hamilton, Ontario