PRO POT PROHIBITIONIST SHOULD READ REPORT FIRST

The Editor,

Re: "Senate push for legal pot not highly thought of," the Now letters,
Sept. 7.

It is obvious to any who have read the Senate Summary Report that Ander
hasn't (read it), plain and simple.

What Ander thinks he knows about cannabis is so flawed that one would be
hard-pressed to take anything this person says on any subject as credible.

He does, however, take prohibitionist lunacy to new heights of absurdity.

Ander's statement that "...marijuana smokers get lung cancer almost as
often as their nicotine-addicted counterparts" is run-of-the-mill
prohibitionist fabrication.

Prominent U.S. researcher John P. Morgan of City University of New York
Medical School told the Senate Committee that smoking marijuana does not
seem to cause lung cancer.

"We are some 30 to 40 years into this marijuana epidemic and still have not
seen evidence of pulmonary cancer in marijuana smokers." (Monday, June 11,
2001 Canadian Press.)

Ander's notion that "the overall death rate is relatively low precisely
because marijuana usage is relatively low" is also typical prohibitionist
nonsense.

The Senate report tells us that 30 per cent of the population (12 to 64
years old) has used cannabis at least once; approximately two million
Canadians over age 18 have used cannabis during the previous 12 months;
approximately 600,000 have used it during the past month, and approximately
100,000 use it daily.

Ander demonstrates exactly how delusional prohibitionist paranoia is when
he goes on about tobacco companies lacing existing tobacco brands with
subliminal levels of marijuana.

Wayne Phillips

Hamilton, Ont.