MARIJUANA IS THE MOST-STUDIED PLANT IN HISTORY

Re: Senate has gone too far, expert argues, Sept. 5.

Carleton University Professor Peter Fried claims we don't know enough about
marijuana to legalize it. I say we didn't know enough about it to
criminalize it in the first place.

Mr. Fried has spent more than 20 years looking for some health risk
associated with cannabis, and the worst he can say is that he doesn't yet
know enough about it to say.

Whatever risk there might be certainly pales in comparison to the very real
and established harms of cannabis prohibition. That's reason enough to
legalize it right now.

There's never been a more studied plant in history. Canada should ignore
the madness that this plant inspires in some of its abstainers (especially
from my side of the border), and move toward a sensible cannabis policy.
Please show us the way.

Larry A. Stevens,

Springfield, Illinois