LAYTON'S COMMENTS WON'T SURPRISE MILLIONS OF CANADIANS

Re: Marijuana 'Wonderful,' Should Be Legal, Layton Says, Nov. 8.

Jack Layton, leader of the federal NDP, may have broken a political
taboo, but his comments won't surprise the millions of Canadians who,
from time to time, use marijuana "responsibly." Marijuana, used in
moderation, can induce a gently altered mental state that not only
enhances enjoyment of food, music, lovemaking, etc., but might
sometimes genuinely enhance certain kinds of thinking.

In a carefully controlled experimental study that my colleagues and I
reported some years ago, there was clear evidence that, for some
people, smoking marijuana can improve certain "right hemisphere"
pattern recognition-integration abilities, even while modestly
reducing certain "left hemisphere" verbal-analytical abilities.
Whether this trade-off is worthwhile would presumably depend on what
one wants to accomplish while "high."

Richard A. Harshman, professor, department of psychology, University
of Western Ontario, London, Ont.