VILLAGES REVEAL MARIJUANA'S HARMFUL EFFECTS; ANTI-POT TEAM APPRECIATED

I was so encouraged to read the news about the anti-pot team
("Anti-pot team attacks push to legalize it," Oct. 14). We were
teaching in the villages in Northwest Arctic in the '70s when the
Molly Hootch schools were being built and the returning high-schoolers
brought their "pot" connections to the villages. Almost overnight we
watched our students change. They no longer seemed able to distinguish
right from wrong or care if they were hurting others or themselves.
The prefrontal cortex, where decisions are made, seemed to be
disconnected from the intellect.

Emotions seemed disconnected as well. In reading Scientific American
this April and learning the important new research about the chemical
transmission of information in our brains, as well as the electrical
transmission of information we already knew about, we are beginning to
understand the disaster that pot has made of so many lives in the Bush
as well as in the city. We are so pleased that someone is standing out
against it!

Sharon Severson

Anchorage