MARIJUANA HAS SOME SERIOUS SIDE EFFECTS

The letter entitled "You can't compare marijuana with ice" (Aug. 3) is more
pro-pot propaganda by another misguided marijuana advocate, Jay Cavanaugh of
California.

He says speed produces symptoms from paranoia to physical deterioration, and
cannabis does none of these. Oh? Last month, a 17-year-old here told police
he smoked marijuana before breaking into a home on O'ahu, and when the
homeowner returned, the youth shot him with a .45-caliber handgun, seriously
wounding him.

Mr. Cavanaugh says pot doesn't produce paranoia. Dead wrong, and it also
produces a strong dependence, complete with psychological and emotional
withdrawal effects. Marijuana unquestionably produces short-term memory loss
and impairs other vital brain functions. Put simply, smoking pot makes
smokers stupid, and smoking pot is bad news for more reasons than there is
room to list here.

Mr. Cavanaugh's letter was prompted by a Lee Cataluna column in which Ms.
Cataluna wrote that arguments that pot eradication efforts fueled the ice
epidemic here are ridiculous. She was absolutely correct, but what she and
others may not see is that widespread marijuana use has in fact led directly
to the ice epidemic in Hawai'i.

Certainly people like Mr. Cavanaugh fail to face this indisputable fact:
30-plus years of marijuana smoking has emphatically sent the message that if
you disagree with a drug law, it's OK to break it. The generations that have
grown up in this environment see drugs -- crystal meth, crack cocaine,
marijuana, black tar heroin -- as substances you smoke to get high, period.

Finally, the most obvious marijuana danger pot advocates like Mr. Cavanaugh
refuse to acknowledge is that inhaling anything into the lungs other than
fresh air (and some prescription medications for pulmonary disorders) is bad
news.

Jerome Kellner

Wailuku, Maui