Pubdate: Thu, 03 Nov 2011
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2011 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Note: Prints only very short LTEs.
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n640/a02.html
Author: Bill Downing

JUST REGULATE POT

Thank you for giving voice to the now growing majority of us who 
support most of what was written by Dr. John Frantz ("Marijuana 
should be quasi-legal," Oct. 27). What the good doctor refers to as a 
"new category," however, is a category that already exists and it is 
called "regulation" - a more fitting term than "legalization."

We regulate all kinds of ingestible substances to widely varying 
degrees, and marijuana should be no different. Restrictions on 
advertising, as the doctor uses for his example of "new," have been 
in place on tobacco for many years.

Unfortunately even Frantz has fallen prey to reefer madness. A 
retired psychiatrist, Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard, who studies 
schizophrenia, has stated that research does not link marijuana and 
schizophrenia. He contends that the consistent 1 percent worldwide 
occurrence of the condition indicates marijuana has no influence upon 
its frequency. The origin of this myth, like so many other marijuana 
myths, is politics, not science.

- - Bill Downing, Reading
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom