Marijuana Still Harmful

Editor, The News:

"Shake the tree and see what drops out." This seems to be the result of my
letter of Sept. 2 in which I listed some facts regarding the hazards of
marijuana use.

The letter appeared to have hit a "raw" nerve in some of the pro marijuana
activists,as it brought out the "heavy hitters."

I would like to thank them for bringing to my attention that I have been
mislead by the prohibitionists with their well researched facts.

My dilemma is: Should I believe the information from the pro-marijuana
activists and researchers, many of whom may be users who feel that they
need the drug?

Or should I believe the anti-marijuana researchers who have nothing to gain
except trying to ensure that the health of the public is the priority?

Who should be believed?

Someone who feels they must have access to the drug? Or someone concerned
about the safety and well-being of society? It concerns me that Chris
Bransfield refers to stronger marijuana as "more medicine."

Marijuana is a drug, not a medicine.

The letter writers seem to feel that anyone who does not read pro marijuana
drivel is out of the "loop."

As a matter of interest I keyed "marijuana" into the net and found that
there are more than five million references on the subject, most of them
extolling the wonders of marijuana and slamming anti-marijuana views.

As I am not academic, I leave the research and reports to the professionals.

There are some sites which outline the hazards of marijuana, backed up by
research reports: www.mfiles.org and www.nida.nih.gov/ I am sure that there
are many other sites.

The final observation and question I have is: For many years tobacco was
widely used and has now been found to be highly addictive and very harmful.

There have been several lawsuits for many millions of dollars.

If marijuana is legalized, and in a few years when the dangers of the
product becomes obvious, will not the government who legalized the product
be the one to be sued?

Think about it!

Eric Myrholm
Abbotsford