Pubdate: Fri, 29 May 2009
Source: Abbotsford Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 The Abbotsford Times
Contact:  http://www.abbotsfordtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1009
Author: Eric Myrholm
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n550/a04.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n567/a09.html

SO, WHO SAYS MARIJUANA ISN'T A DANGEROUS DRUG ON OUR STREETS?

EDITOR, THE TIMES:

In the May 22 edition of your paper - History may yet prove Felger 
right on drug prohibition - Karen Gardner writes in part: ". . . if 
you make it illegal the criminals will crawl out of the woodwork to 
sell it at great profit to them and at great cost to society."

In the May 26 edition of the Times, Russel Barth writes in part: 
"Adults set up this system of drug prohibition which subsidizes 
gangsters and their lifestyles."

If drugs are legalized would not the criminal element have a cheap 
source of drugs to sell to our youth? Would they not push the harder 
more addictive drugs?

Is the smoking of a dangerous weed so important that the 
pro-marijuana faction will expend such a large amount of energy and 
effort in promoting the product?

Is it possible many of them are marijuana dependent (addicted)? The 
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) states in part: 
"Young people who smoke marijuana are two to five times more likely 
to move on to harder drugs."

The JAMA also states, "almost half of the young people who started 
smoking marijuana before 17 went on to use harder drugs later in 
life.The study is the latest to suggest the link between marijuana 
and other drugs like cocaine and heroin."

So, who says marijuana is not a dangerous drug? The "dependant" user?

Parents need to be open and consistant with an anti-drug message by 
both example and word.We must also remember that anyone who purchases 
the illegal drug, marijuana and any other illegal drugs, is 
supporting the criminal element.

It is not prohibition of drugs that creates violence but the customer 
purchasing the product.

Eric Myrholm,

Abbotsford
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