JUST SAY NO

As a former marijuana addict, I am upset with the heavily
pro-marijuana-dispensaries line your publication continues to take
with regard to this obviously important issue. While I have no
objection to California citizens' rights to pass such a law, nor even
the basic concept of "medical marijuana," I believe the intent of the
law has been taken to an extreme which in the end will not serve
sufferers of legitimate diagnosed problems.

I have seen advertisements in your paper as well as others (notably
the L.A. Weekly), which have made claims that so-called "medical
marijuana" will help sufferers of problems as distinct as depression,
seizures, and cancer. While I don't doubt that those under
chemotherapy can benefit from marijuana's miraculous ability to
induce the "munchies," being someone who has suffered in the past
from clinical depression and seizures, I can say that I was never so
depressed as when I was addicted to marijuana. It is a known
depressant, much like alcohol, and though it can provide some
temporary relief it can never solve such problems in the long term.
As far as seizures are concerned, I doubt that the proponents of
"medical marijuana" would be able to find a single reputable
neurologist who would prescribe this form of treatment.

The main problem is this paper's (and the Weekly's) willingness to
chuck objective reporting in the waste bin in order to simultaneously
take the advertising dollars of the medical marijuana establishments
while also enjoying the "red meat" of liberal journalism by bashing
the "fascist" DEA, who are only performing their jobs. My family is
all in the Netherlands, and they have seen the effects of drug-law
liberalization. I have a cousin who has struggled back from the
depths of heroin addiction. I have a cousin who was just recently
institutionalized because he is a danger to society. His problems all
began with marijuana.

A more noble cause would be to fight to help the common man receive
true medical attention and reliable medications at reasonable costs.
I pay $600 out of my own pocket each month to afford the medications
I need in order to prevent having a seizure, and there is no one in
the medical marijuana community who has anything to offer me. As far
as I am concerned, they are another symptom of the rampant
self-centered idiocy which the culture of marijuana has wrought upon
our country since the 1960s.

Nils de Mol van Otterloo

Los Angeles