MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MARIJUANA

Re: "Just Pot meeting stirs up controversy" by Amy van Elk (Letters to the
Editor, Mirror, Dec. 31, 2004).

Throughout history, people were convinced of all kinds of silly things. The
earth was widely believed to be flat, and at the centre of the universe,
with everything in the universe revolving around it, and anyone who said
different was considered a heretic. Science later proved that the earth was
round, and that it travelled around the sun.

Just because Amy van Elk says that marijuana will make you stupid and will
damage the immune system and so on doesn't make it true. Ms. van Elk should
read the research of people like Dr. Ethan Russo and Lester Grinspoon, and
the hard scientific data that supports that cannabis is a safe, effective,
and benign medicine. She might also take a flip through the Canadian Senate
Committee Report on drugs from 2002 which soundly debunks all of the
bogeyman rhetoric about the so-called dangers of marijuana.

For decades, marijuana's dangers have been exaggerated by sensationalist
media, police and lobby groups who all have a vested interest in keeping
prohibition alive. In the hands of a carpenter, a hammer is a tool, but in
the hands of a madman, it is a weapon. Does that mean we should outlaw hammers?

Granted, cannabis is not without side-effects and can cause some people
some problems, but that is not because "pot is bad" but because some people
are just irresponsible. My high school years were a complete wash-out, but
the substances that messed me up were chocolate and caffeine, not pot and
alcohol.

No matter what Amy van Elk's, or anyone else's opinions about marijuana may
be, the bottom line is that our current system of prohibition is failing to
achieve any of its stated goals of reducing use, abuse, harm, and crime.
Prohibition and "Just Say No" propaganda has made cannabis one of the most
popular and widely available substances in the world, and has done far more
damage to far more people than marijuana ever could.

Worse yet, adults insisting to teens that pot is dangerous undermines their
credibility when they discuss truly dangerous drugs like meth, coke and
heroin. No one wants to believe someone who has already lied to them. Amy
van Elk should be commended for furthering the debate, for in the
searching, the truth will eventually be found.

Russell Barth

Educators For A Sensible Drug Policy

Ottawa