MARIJUANA COLUMN BRINGS RESPONSE FROM AFAR

To the editor:

The assertions made by Dr. Paul Latimer (Marijuana Use and Psychiatric
Illness Associated, Nov. 7 Capital News) concerning cannabis, ought
not go unchallenged because they promote the viewpoint of the
psychiatric clinician as proven truth rather than the therapeutic
state hypotheses those assertions in fact are. The therapeutic state
has evolved from the theologic state and seeks medical/therapeutic
solutions to moral/social problems.

I promote the thesis of Dr. Thomas Szasz that psychiatry is a social
control method and not a medical science per se. Control language, as
Orwell reminds us, and you control mankind.

For starters, the mind is found right beside the soul on the autopsy
table. One is a medical metaphor and one is a religious metaphor, but
under the cold hard light of day, mind and soul are one and the same.

Sigmund Freud is the father of all this psychoanalysis. Karl Krause
was Freud's greatest nemesis. "Soul doctor" is what Krause concluded
when he studied what Freud did rather than listen to what Freud said
he did. We now know Freud was wrong but little attention is ever given
to the more pertinent fact that Krause was right.

Dr. Paul Latimer has plenty of labels to stigmatize political or moral
behaviours his profession votes on to include in their bible. But, not
everybody believes that passing legislation legitimizes perceptions.
Various mental health acts are what give authority to Dr. Latimer's
views and therein lies the rub. It's as if witchcraft is legislated
into existence and the inquisitors have no problem blaming all
society's ills on sorcery. Mental illnesses are all myths. This is all
soul doctoring in the therapeutic state.

None of this is to disagree with Dr. Latimer's view that troubled
persons ought to avoid substances such as cannabis. In fact, I will
suggest to Dr. Latimer that there are no chemical solutions to any
"problems in living" or so-called mental illnesses.

That is not to say that Dr. Latimer does not provide a valuable
service to the community. It is to say that society ought to be more
upfront with the truth about it all, including stupefying psychiatric
drug use in the cure of secular state souls.

Would it surprise anybody to learn that the major pharmaceutical
companies often fund psychiatric drug research?

Chris Buors,

Winnipeg