CLEARER HEADS URGED IN MARIJUANA DEBATE

Regarding the letter, Changes urged in proposed pot bill (June 4).

Perhaps Michelle Hyde should spend less time listening to what someone told
her about marijuana having the same effect as alcohol and more time
actually researching some of the studies that have been done over the last
few decades about marijuana.

These studies, including two recently presented over the last few weeks on
the Discovery channel program Daily Planet (a science news show), clearly
illustrate and prove marijuana has nowhere near the same effect as alcohol,
which is a depressant.

If people were to rely more on facts that have been derived through a
scientific method, instead of just what people have told them, maybe we'd
get some clearer heads prevailing, instead of listening to decades-old
rhetoric being spewed by people who are (maybe by accident) ignorant of the
facts and have nothing better to do than try to control what other people
do with their lives.

Furthermore, to complain about the cost of medical care for people who
choose to smoke it is ridiculous. Would you deny someone who was in a car
accident medical care, because they chose to drive?

Ron Jennings, London