Get Active Subscribe Support Us

MISLEADING ON MARIJUANA

A writer made some false claims in his anti-marijuana letter.  I would like to correct these errors.

He claimed that "most people who are for marijuana legalization are the ones who use drugs illegally." Some 78 percent of Americans favor legalizing medical marijuana, and 58 percent want it legalized for recreational purposes.  So he was obviously wrong.

He says that one joint is as harmful as five cigarettes.  Cigarettes cause cancer, marijuana does not cause cancer.  He again was wrong.

He claimed that marijuana caused birth defects, another false claim.  There is no proof whatsoever that marijuana causes birth defects.

He said that, "legalizing medical marijuana is not the cure for America." Yet millions of people use it as a cure for pain, nausea, lack of appetite, fibromyalgia, glaucoma and dozens of other conditions with a doctor's prescription.  For those millions of people it is a cure.

He then repeated the typical "gateway" nonsense that if you smoke a joint you will want heroin.  More than half of Americans have smoked pot, and less than 1 percent of Americans use heroin.  His claim is clearly false.

This guy's letter is why Americans no longer support the war on marijuana -- it is based on lies.

The real question is not whether you want pot legalized, it is whether you want the government to capture your neighbors from their homes in the night, seize their property and throw them into Gulags because they like a plant.

Ellen McGrady

Lexington