CRITIC OVERREACHES WITH ANALOGY

In Elbert Stallcop's letter to the editor ("We've been down this road
before," Missoulian, Jan. 17), he compares the legalization of
marijuana for medicinal purposes to the legalization of alcohol for
recreational purposes.

He foresees a large number of people running off to their health care
providers to ask to be prescribed marijuana for an array of made-up or
minor health problems.

Never mind that it's not covered by health insurance, entails a
substantial fee to register as a medical user and involves fooling a
medical professional. Then apparently these individuals will smoke,
decide to drive around town, suffer a loss of depth perception and an
inability to process how fast they are going, and endanger all our
lives.

Stallcop observes, "We just do not need another substance on the
market that impairs the user's senses." Some cold and cough medicines,
most pain medicines and many other drugs can impair a person's ability
to operate a motor vehicle.

Should they be taken off the market?

Or should we perhaps trust people - the doctors who may have to
suggest marijuana when other prescription drugs have failed, the ill
who can perhaps benefit from the effects of marijuana and, yes, even
those recreational users of the drug who wouldn't think of resorting
to such measures to get their fix?

Drugs like alcohol, marijuana and even cold medicines will always have
the potential to be abused but that fact alone is no reason to keep
medicines that can potentially help people out of consumers' hands.

I applaud the citizens of Montana for recognizing that people finding
relief from marijuana for serious medical illnesses should be
protected from legal prosecution. Unfortunately, however, there will
always be people like Stallcop who fail to recognize that we can trust
marijuana users, both sick and well, not to abuse such a
"privilege."

Amanda Engeldrum, Missoula