POT CONCERNS UNFOUNDED

Leona Schell's worries that legal marijuana would make our roads more
dangerous (Pot activist no martyr, Oct. 25) are without justification
for two reasons.

At least five major studies in Canada, the U.S., Australia and Britain
have been unable to show a link between traffic accidents and the use
of marijuana.

They theorize that marijuana users must correctly judge when they are
impaired and choose not to drive.

The studies also find that more people use marijuana now in Canada
than are likely to use it if marijuana is legalized.

Prohibition is not an effective way to reduce drug use. This was as
true for alcohol prohibition as it is for our current marijuana
prohibition.

By the end of the American prohibition of alcohol more people were
drinking than when it was enacted.

Similarly rates of marijuana use in Canada surpass the rates of use in
the Netherlands where marijuana is legally available. If we have
anything to fear from the widespread use of marijuana, we should be
worrying now.

Rick and Anna Marie Owen (Rejecting pot isn't unfriendly, Oct. 23)
make a similar error when they suggest that legalization would send
the wrong message to our children.

Prohibition has already sent that message. Marijuana has replaced
alcohol as the drug most commonly used by children.

More than 80 per cent of Canadian children will have tried marijuana
before completing high school, while in the Netherlands the comparable
figure is 24 per cent.

There are many misconceptions about marijuana and its users, and
before we send more of our neighbours to jail, we might be wise to
spend some time studying the facts.

Marijuana is not a dangerous drug and marijuana users are not
dangerous to society. While the writers may not like Marc Emery, on
this subject he is right and they are wrong.

Ken Sailor

Saskatoon