MARIJUANA DOES HAVE SIDE EFFECTS

In regards to Kevin Allen's letter to Del Egan: Yes, we have pushers
pushing cigarettes on minors, usually their peers, so they don't feel so
guilty about their own smoking, and quite often it was an older teen who
introduced them to or bought the cigarettes for them.

I have no argument with the dangers of alcohol and all the bad effects it
has on people but to say marijuana is benign is ridiculous. Go down to
AADAC and ask for their tape on marijuana. I think it is called "Marijuana
in the '90s." The danger of marijuana is that it is intoxicating, but the
big danger is that the intoxicating effects continue long after the high is
gone. The active ingredient of marijuana attaches itself to the fat cells
and has a half-life of around 72 hours. The person doesn't feel it but
airline pilots trained in simulators were not able to land their planes
safely until a few days later. Of course this takes a lot more dexterity
than to walk or talk and even to drive a car but can still affect a driver
longer than alcohol will.

As for legalized marijuana putting the pushers out of business, check out
Holland's government on this. They found out all that happened is the
pushers turned to pushing harder drugs and now they have an epidemic on
their hands in hard-drug dealing.

I don't have any problem with marijuana being used for medical reasons
except that smoking it can cause just as bad effects on the lungs as
cigarettes and I just got that news from a doctor who had prescribed it to
patients but then had them go for breathing tests months later. He said
some were down to dangerous levels of breathing capacity. Something else
has to be done to administer marijuana to these patients besides smoking it.

I think the government is too involved in legalizing drugs of any kind. It
should be left to the medical community under controlled conditions. We've
screwed up on alcohol. Prohibition didn't work very well. But to throw open
the doors to more drugs is dangerous and should be thought out carefully.

I know telling you all this, Kevin, is not going to do much good as I tried
showing the AADAC video to kids I know are using pot and they just
pooh-poohed it. AADAC knows what it is talking about. They deal with it
every day.

Keith Porter

Medicine Hat