MARIJUANA ERADICATION DOES NOT LEAD TO ICE

Your June 8 editorial, "Groups should address broad drug strategy,"
oversimplifies Hawaii's complex substance-abuse problems.

You echo the drug legalizer canard that marijuana eradication efforts lead
to ice use by creating a shortage of pot. This is ridiculous on two counts.
First, what shortage? In 2002, 63 percent of Hawaii's 10th-graders reported
that marijuana was either "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain. (Source:
The 2002 Hawaii Student Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use Survey.)
Second, if the lack of marijuana leads people to use ice, then marijuana is
indeed a "gateway drug" and should be vigorously suppressed.

About 200,000 people each year enter substance-abuse treatment programs to
overcome their dependence on marijuana. About 95,000 Americans end up in
emergency rooms each year because of marijuana-related accidents or adverse
reactions. Of these people, more than 20,000 get in trouble using only
marijuana and about 70,000 by using it with alcohol or other drugs. (Source:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied
Studies, Drug Abuse Warning Network, 2000, March 2001; and Treatment Episode
Data Set, March 31, 2000).

Combating ice and combating marijuana are not mutually exclusive. Both are
dangerous drugs and both should be fought.

Ray Gagner

Kailua