POT PHOBIA DISTORTS TRUTH ABOUT ITS MEDICAL PROPERTIES

To the editor:

According to Joe McGeeney, ("Ehrlich signs controversial medical
marijuana bill," May 22) "It's sending the wrong message to our kids
that it's OK to use because there is medicinal powers. Other states
that have approved (similar bills) have seen a sharp increase in the
youth smoking marijuana."

McGeeney must be unaware that 47 percent of Maryland's 12th graders
admit to having experimented with marijuana. Californians have enjoyed
almost a 10 percent reduction - down to 34 percent - of teen use since
1996, when California legalized medical marijuana. Clearly, kids
choose to abuse "drugs" more often than they abuse "medicines."

Furthermore, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Family
Physicians; American Bar Association; American Public Health
Association; American Society of Addiction Medicine; AIDS Action
Council; British Medical Association; California Academy of Family
Physicians; California Legislative Council for Older Americans;
California Medical Association; California Nurses Association;
California Pharmacists Association; California Society of Addiction
Medicine; California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist
Church; Colorado Nurses Association; Consumer Reports Magazine; Kaiser
Permanente; Lymphoma Foundation of America; Multiple Sclerosis
California Action Network; National Association of Attorneys General;
National Association of People with AIDS; National Nurses Society on
Addictions; New Mexico Nurses Association; New York State Nurses
Association; New England Journal of Medicine; and Virginia Nurses
Association have all endorsed medical access to marijuana. Have they
just been "misled on the actual science" too?

The first time kids learn that these "dangers" of marijuana are
exaggerated at best, they will mistrust the source of this
misinformation. "Pot equals terrorism" ads, in-between beer and
pharmaceutical ads, is a truly dangerous mixed message to send. Yet we
wasted more than 4 million of our tax dollars to do just that.

We need to stop inventing dangers by criminalizing an act that hurts
no one, but helps many. The best we can do for our children is to give
them honesty and the common sense to make healthy choices in a
challenging world. The rest is up to them, just as it was up to us
when we were younger.

Erin Hildebrandt

Smithsburg