Pubdate: Tue, 29 Jul 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 Stuart Gitlow
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Stuart Gitlow
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n617/a03.html
Note: Editorial Series
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html
Note: Second of 5 letters

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA? RESPONSES VARY

To the Editor:

Your opinion, in "Repeal Prohibition, Again," that marijuana
should be legalized is based in part on an assumption that during
Prohibition "people kept drinking." Prohibition reduced the
public's alcohol intake considerably. The rate of alcohol-associated
illness dropped in similar fashion. Prohibition was perhaps a
political failure, but an impressive success from a public health standpoint.

Both alcohol and marijuana can lead to the chronic disease of
addiction, directly affect the brain and negatively affect function.
As more than 10 percent of our population has addictive disease, your
statement that marijuana is "far less dangerous than alcohol"
doesn't reflect decades of research demonstrating risks associated
with both of these drugs.

Why would we possibly wish to add to the alcohol- and tobacco-driven
personal and public health catastrophe with yet another substance to
which some people will become addicted?

Some people use marijuana currently. Legalize it, and more people will
use more marijuana, leading to more addiction, lower productivity and
higher societal costs.

STUART GITLOW President, American Society of Addiction Medicine New
York, July 27, 2014
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D