BE SKEPTICAL TOWARD U.S. RHETORIC ABOUT DRUGS

Re: U.S. official: Canadian pot no soft drug, March 11

This story cites 120,000 pot-linked emergency room visits in the U.S. each
year. But why did reporter Tom Blackwell fail to state what types of
injuries could cause such a quasi-epidemic?

How about a woman visiting an emergency room and saying, "Gee, I sprained
my ankle while jogging, and I was high on marijuana"? Or a businessman
complaining, "I was a passenger in a car when it was hit by a drunken
driver. My arm seems broken. Good thing I had been smoking pot. It calmed
my nerves a bit"?

Isn't it time that Canadians scoffed at the inflated rhetoric that spews
out of the United States about anything associated with marijuana?

Reporters, ask the proper questions, please. Same to you and your Public
Safety Ministry, Anne McLellan.

Elizabeth Rains

Instructor

Langara College Publishing and Journalism programs