Pubdate: Sun, 09 Jun 2013
Source: Daily Courier (Prescott, AZ)
Copyright: 2013 Prescott Newspapers, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dcourier.com/Formlayout.asp?formcall=userform&form=1
Website: http://www.dcourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4036
Author: Allen Cottle

MEDS, ALCOHOL, POT ARE APPLES AND ORANGES

EDITOR:

Larry Wonderling's rebuttal to Sheila Polk's piece "Marijuana is not
harmless" needs further discussion.

He criticizes pharmaceutical companies for advertising psychotropic
drugs to solve mood, mental and pain disorders. Anyone who has treated
patients with these problems knows that these drugs are only an
adjunct to the physician's therapy. They still require a prescription
written by a licensed physician. Unless they are stolen or purchased
illegally on the street, they are under the control and supervision of
the physician.

Comparing the dangerous qualities of alcohol and pot is like saying
arsenic is no worse than strychnine. Alcohol is carefully standardized
for potency, is taxed appropriately and the consequences of abuse are
well known. The medicinal use of pot is also controlled by physicians
via prescriptions and I have no quarrel with its use where medically
indicated.

Marijuana truly is a gateway drug to other mind-altering and rapidly
addicting chemicals. If Larry Wonderling doesn't understand and
appreciate that fact, he is under informed. His opinion of working
through life's discomforts, without help from psychotropic drugs under
the supervision of a physician, may take us back to a life on the
couch. The fact that psychologists cannot legally prescribe these
wonderful adjuncts to therapy may influence his disregard for them.

Allen Cottle, M.D.

Prescott
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt