POLL ON USE OF MARIJUANA IS NOT CREDIBLE

Re: Most 'medical' marijuana use illegal: poll, Feb. 3.

The conclusion that more than one million Canadians are breaking the law by
smoking marijuana for medical purposes, without knowing a permit is
required, is questionable, as it is based on a survey that seems to be flawed.

Just because the vast majority of those who participated in the survey did
not volunteer a comment in their responses indicating they knew that
medicinal use of this drug requires a permit from the government, does not
mean they are unaware of this legal requirement. Without a specific
question being asked in the survey on this particular aspect, I do not see
how this conclusion can be drawn.

It may well be that most of the respondents felt it goes without saying
that a permit is required by law, and did not see a need to indicate this
in their answer because that could, in effect, be an admission that they
knowingly flout the law.

One also wonders how many of the survey respondents might state that their
use of marijuana was a medical necessity (kidding themselves, of course )
in an attempt to justify their habit.

But it would be more useful to know how many seriously ill people are using
the drug, with full knowledge that they are breaking the law, simply
because the process of getting approval for medical use is too complicated
and too slow.

George Stewart

Ottawa