MARIJUANA HAZARDS

Re: The scary science of marijuana, July 26.

Thank you, Margret Kopala, for your excellent column on the grim
brain-chemistry hazards of marijuana use, especially for younger
teens. As you write: "The younger the user and the higher the potency
of marijuana's active ingredient, THC, the greater the risk."

And how right you are to tie this science to the hypothetical
question of decriminalization, for, as you imply, such legislation
could send disastrous signals to the young, the very segment with the
most to lose medically. "So long as (the decriminalization)
discussion ignores the overall health effects of marijuana, Canada
will get the drug problem it deserves. Indeed it's probably already arrived."

Certainly it has. But a pleasure to see a Citizen columnist alert to
the problem and not in step with the Citizen's law-liberalizing
crusader Dan Gardner.

David Sacks, Ottawa