READERS WONDER WHAT THOSE SENATORS ARE SMOKING

Our morgues are already full with victims of tobacco and alcohol (Little
chance for legal pot bonanza, Sep. 5). Why do we need a third legal drug
added to the mix?

Marijuana smokers scream until they're blue in the face that it's never
killed anybody, while writing off as coincidence that regular marijuana
smokers get lung cancer almost as often as their nicotine-addicted
counterparts. Or that marijuana shows up in the blood of those who cause
fatal traffic accidents almost as often as alcohol.

The over-all death rate is relatively low precisely because marijuana usage
is relatively low, but that will change fast if we put marijuana into
corner stores as the senators recommend.

The world's biggest tobacco companies have already trademarked brand names
like "Acapulco Gold" so if any country ever legalizes marijuana, they can
move fast to get packs of 20 Acapulco Golds into the supermarkets next to
the bananas, or to lace existing tobacco brands with subliminal levels of
marijuana.

Tobacco will kill roughly half of Canada's five-million-odd cigarette
smokers alive today. Big Tobacco kills more Canadians every year than the
42,000 who died in all six years of the Second World War combined, and
recruits thousands more Canadian kids every week.

Tobacco was legalized before we knew its deadly effects. Do we really want
to risk similar numbers for marijuana?

Marc Ander

Director

Airspace Action on Smoking & Health

Vancouver

READERS WONDER WHAT THOSE SENATORS ARE SMOKING

Not having to worry about being elected is why a Senate committee has
loonily recommended the legalization of marijuana. Those senators, who were
appointed through patronage, thus live in a dream world where the health
and welfare of children and teens mean nothing to them.

There are good reasons why pot is illegal -- and should remain so forever
- -- while tobacco and liquor are not.

First, the high potency of today's pot is not the mild stuff of the 1960s;
its potency can easily be increased further and further.

Second, anyone and his dog can easily grow and process pot in their
basements to make profits, whereas it's impractical to do so with tobacco
and alcohol. How would you like your neigbourhood teeming with grow-ops,
resulting in risks of fires and crimes?

Don't be dumb and think criminals would not take full advantages of
legalization and sell home-grown pots to kids -- and more cheaply (and with
higher potency) than "Government Marijuana Stores" or your favourite local
grocer. Criminals are not stupid, but they do appreciate anything to make
their life easier -- even only decriminalization would do to increase the
demands.

Just when tobacco companies are suffering from the decreasing use of
cigarettes, here comes salvation from the Senate. Are they lucky or what?

D.L. Inge

Vancouver