Pubdate: Thu, 01 May 2003
Source: Westender (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 WestEnder
Contact:  http://www.westender.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1243
Author: Frank G. Sterle, Jr.

DECRIMINALIZING POT A DANGEROUS MOVE

Abolishing prohibition against marijuana consumption is legitimizing its 
consumption and implying that it's harmless ("Drug prohibition never the 
answer," Letters, April 17-24 issue).

As a former pot-consumer myself, I, along with most of my former 
pot-consumption peers who I've bumped into these last half-dozen years, can 
attest to the permanent damage marijuana can cause to the body and mind.

Scientific proof of such damage? For one, there are the startling facts 
published in an article last Sept. 17, in London's Guardian newspaper; it 
was authored by professor of psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry and 
hospital consultant, Robin Murray:

"In the mid-'90s, a Dutch psychiatrist named Don Lintzen, from the 
University Clinic in Amsterdam, noted that people with schizophrenia who 
consumed a lot of cannabis had a much worse outcome than those who didn't. 
This was confirmed by other studies, including a four-year follow-up at the 
Maudsley Hospital. Those who continued to smoke cannabis were three times 
more likely to develop a chronic illness than those who did not consume..." 
Murray learned.

"Why does cannabis exacerbate psychosis? In schizophrenia, the 
hallucinations result from an excess of a brain chemical called dopamine. 
All of the drugs that cause psychosis--amphetamines, cocaine and 
cannabis--increase the release of dopamine in the brain. In this way, they 
are distinct from illicit drugs such as heroin or morphine, which do not 
make psychosis worse."

Frank G. Sterle, Jr. , White Rock
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