SEIZURES MAY BE SIDE EFFECT OF POT

Editor:

I started collecting information on marijuana and its use when my children
started leaving home in the 1970s. I knew they would be exposed to it and,
while I wasn't convinced it was dangerous, I didn't think it would do them
much good.

One report from the 1980s said some doctors are convinced that brain
seizures similar to epileptic seizures can be caused by smoking pot. When I
mentioned this to an occasional pot smoker, she interrupted me with,
"That's it," and then went on to tell me that a friend of hers who had
started having grand mal seizures was smoking heavily.

This is not to say that every smoker will have symptoms similar to those of
epilepsy. And it is definitely not to say that everyone with epilepsy is a
pot user. But I don't want to see people stoned.

One fairly reliable source backtracked on its own report to say that while
initially it didn't think smoking pot was dangerous, it had later decided
it was far more dangerous than they had even suspected.

MARY-JO BURLES

Pincher Creek