DOCTOR SAYS DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA WOULD BE A STRIKE AGAINST HEALTH AND
WELL BEING OF OUR COUNTRY'S CHILDREN

(The following letter was addressed to Halton MP Julian Reed and a copy was
filed with The Champion.)

Dear Editor: This letter is in response to Halton MP Julian Reed's January
20 letter about his government's proposal to decriminalize marijuana.

The ill effects of smoking modern marijuana have multiplied over the last
30 to 40 years, as today's marijuana is about 25 times more potent than it
was in the 1960s. Marijuana use contributes significantly to motor vehicle
crashes. It slows reaction time and decreases the ability to judge distance
and time. It worsens short-term memory, learning, and attention span.

Perhaps the worst consequence is that teenagers who use marijuana have been
found to be about 100 times more likely to use cocaine than those who've
never smoked marijuana -- hence its description as a gateway drug which is
the generally accepted viewpoint of police officers and others directly
involved with these teenagers.

Excessive alcohol consumption and regular tobacco use are two of the known
risk factors for the development of modern chronic illnesses such as
hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

With much higher concentrations of lung contaminants, smoking marijuana
will significantly add to the risk for the development of these chronic
conditions in our teenagers, in addition to the ill effects listed above.

We know that up to 70 per cent of modern illnesses and their associated
costs in North America are lifestyle-related, and therefore preventable.
This is why Health Canada and the provincial governments are trying to
reduce these same risk factors to promote improved health in Canadians.

If your goal and that of the Canadian government is to make it legal for
some patients to receive marijuana as a medicine, then create appropriate
outlets where these medical prescriptions can be legally filled.

Decriminalizing marijuana will also severely compromise the efforts of our
treatment and rehabilitation institutions. And this at a time when
"punk-offs" or teenage street robberies are escalating and the judicial
system is increasingly sending these youth to such centres to get the help
they need.

Let us pass laws in Canada that promote health and wellness in our children
and future citizens, and not the reverse. Teenagers should be helped to say
no to drugs and of course to say no to smoking cigarettes and no to alcohol
abuse, and not encouraged to use them.

Being a teenager is hard enough without pushing them toward
experimentation, drug use, drug abuse, drug addiction and crime.

Rewards and incentives as well as deterrents can play an effective role
here, as they also can in counteracting the risk factors for the modern
chronic illnesses that are lifestyle related.

Dr. Christopher Eriksson, CEO

The Art of Healthy Living Inc.