POT KEEPS ON CONFUSING

Editor, The Record:

After working through the mild frustration of a couple of his strangling
participles, I then began to become really confused with Eugene Kaellis'
flyer at retro-hip existential discourse (Drugs used to fight isolation -
Record, May 24). Maybe he was partaking a tad too much in the stuff whose
decriminalization he was simultaneously attempting to defend whilst
composing his lofty disquisition.

Kaellis' comparisons of ("for instance") marijuana to other
mood/consciousness-altering substances - like alcohol and coffee - and
spiritual journeys in Zen-type meditation are all very well for
discussions' sake. Goodness knows, however, after I waded through ... "We
are aware of ourselves; we are aware that we are aware; and we are aware of
that in an almost infinite regression terminated only by intellectual
exhaustion... often making us quite uncomfortable, even desperate to avoid
it, especially at the malignant doses in which it often manifests." ... I
could have used a double-dose of good scotch, even though it was only 9
o'clock on Sunday morning.

The candid reader is probably scratching his or her head and asking his or
her self what all that has to do with decriminalizing marijuana ("MJ").
Just re-read the quoted paragraph above and you'll probably decide it's
better to keep it illegal. Just the same, there are practical as well as
the dubious, uh, "cerebral" aspects to consider.

While MJ is often grouped with other "gateway" (i.e. likely to induce its
user to try other mind altering stuff - or simply lots more of the
original) substances, including tobacco and alcohol, it's definitely in a
distinct category of harm amongst so-called "soft" drugs. Apart from levels
of carbon monoxide and benzo-pyrene being WAY higher than in cigarettes,
its psychoactive component, tetrahydracanabinol ("THC"), is fat-soluble.
What does this mean?

Bad as it (or anything) is when taken to excess, the water soluble property
of alcohol allows its impairing effects to dissipate in less than 12 hours
after the last sip. THC, on the other hand, hangs around for up to 30 days.
So, ask yourself the following:

Were you taking a flight to Toronto (SARS notwithstanding) tomorrow, would
you be more comfortable with your pilot having a couple beers and a couple
cigarettes tonight, or a couple of joints?

Hey dude, chill and go figure.

Dave Mendenhall,
New Westminster