POT CAN EXACERBATE SOME MENTAL ILLNESSES

The U.S., for a change, makes a good point: Canada's laws and judges are
quite lax about marijuana consumption (Relaxed pot laws prompt U.S.
warning, April 19). This is, despite the fact that, according to many
studies, pot-consumers' mental health depends in part on the reduction or
prevention of cannabis consumption, more so than opiates.

For example, there were startling facts published in The Guardian newspaper
last Sept. 17. Written by Robin Murray, professor of psychiatry at the
Institute of Psychiatry and a hospital consultant, the article said in part:

"In the mid-'90s, a Dutch psychiatrist named Don Lintzen, from the
University Clinic in Amsterdam, noted that people with schizophrenia who
consumed a lot of cannabis had a much worse outcome than those who didn't.
This was confirmed by other studies, including a four-year follow-up at the
Maudsley Hospital. Those who continued to smoke cannabis were three times
more likely to develop a chronic illness than those who did not consume the
drug.

"Why does cannabis exacerbate psychosis? In schizophrenia, the
hallucinations result from an excess of a brain chemical called dopamine.
All of the drugs that cause psychosis --amphetamines, cocaine and cannabis
- -- increase the release of dopamine in the brain. In this way, they are
distinct from illicit drugs such as heroin or morphine, which do not make
psychosis worse."

If people propose legalizing marijuana for practical reasons -- for
example, less pressure on overburdened law enforcement and justice systems
- -- that's a clear motive. But there's simply way too much of the
media-propagated BS out there telling our impressionable youth that pot is
harmless.

Frank G. Sterle, Jr., White Rock