INJURY STALLED CAREER

Dear Editor:

Based on a remark made by Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam, "When
I got hurt I wasn't going to practice so I pretty much spent my time
sitting around getting high," letter writer Peter Nazwaski concluded
the use of marijuana destroyed Salaam's promising National Football
League career." (letters, March 3).

It appears to me that, as is all too often the case, a sports injury
destroyed Salaam's promising football career. How many promising
careers have been tragically derailed by sports injuries is anyone's
guess, but clearly full-contact recreational sports are dangerous.

Nazwaski went on to ask, "Will the use of marijuana also harm the
careers of promising accountants, nurses, bricklayers or anyone else
who indulges in the practice?"

Indeed. One can only wonder what noted cannabis consumers such as Carl
Sagan, Louis Armstrong, William Shakespeare, Norman Mailer, Ted
Turner, Ross Rebagliati, Pierre Trudeau and Bill Clinton might have
accomplished had they not partaken. What if they had preferred alcohol?

Mysteriously several studies -- Kaestner, 1991, Register and Williams,
1992, Burgess and Proper, 1998, have concluded that cannabis users
tend to earn higher wages than abstainers.

Matthew Elrod

Vancouver, B.C.