BOTHERED BY CANADIAN GOVERNMENT LOOKING INTO LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

Dear Editor:

I am a fifteen-year-old student here in Camrose. I am bothered by the fact
that the Canadian government is looking into legalizing marijuana. I hope
that our legislators will reject legalizing this so-called "harmless" drug.

As a youth, I hear that marijuana use is no longer a "big deal," that
"everybody's doing it." a former classmate of mine - beautiful,
intelligent, athletic - started using marijuana in eighth grade. Before
long, it didn't get her "high" enough and she started using hard-core
drugs, ending up hurting others and herself physically and emotionally. I
regret not letting her know I cared about her and now I've lost that chance.

A lot of teens begin experimenting with pot, then "graduate" to mushrooms,
hash and heroine. These aren't drugs that just give you a "high"; these are
drugs that kill. As a society, don't you want to protect your youth? If you
want us to have a safe future, do not support the legalization of marijuana.

Fortunately, I have friends and family support to keep me from getting into
even the most harmless drugs. Not everyone has the amazing friends I have
or the moral support of a good family. Some youth feel unloved, unwanted,
and want to fit in. If it takes doing drugs to forget these problems,
they'll do them. The "high" from drugs wears off though, and the problems
are still there.

I know that people who are ill would like the legalization of marijuana to
deal with pain, but we have to face the reality that suffering is part of
life and that one day we will all die. For those with physical pain, there
are alternatives to marijuana. Can they not see that millions of youth may
suffer because of their plea for legalization?

Depression, anxiety, and personality disturbances are all associated with
marijuana use. Research has shown that marijuana use has potential to cause
problems in daily life or make a person's existing problems worse. Because
marijuana compromises the ability to learn and remember information, the
more a person uses marijuana the more he or she is likely to fall behind in
gaining intellectual, job or social skills. Marijuana's adverse impact on
memory and learning can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of
the drug wear off.

Don't stand by and watch the world fall into drug abuse because one drug is
so "harmless." I've seen what it does to people, and I'm sorry that I never
had the chance to say good-bye.

Liesl Schulte
Camrose