Pubdate: Sat, 02 Jun 2001
Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON)
Copyright: The Hamilton Spectator 2001
Contact:  http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/181
Author: Bren Buckley

POT HAS MANY BENEFITS

I think letter writer Dave McPherson needs to get his facts straight
before he blindly spouts anti-marijuana propaganda. The entire gateway
drug argument is a theory that medical science has debunked. It is a
product of faulty logic and a government bent on keeping marijuana
illegal.

By the same logic, tobacco and alcohol can be classified as gateway
drugs as they are almost always the first drug tried by teens.

If McPherson had done anything but merely accept the U.S. government's
biased reports on marijuana he might know that marijuana has many
benefits to the human body and mind. Not only that, but the Draconian
laws currently in effect make it extremely difficult to grow
industrial hemp, which in many cases carries the same classification
as marijuana.

Beyond the physical damage caused by the act of smoking, marijuana has
no debilitating effects on the body. The fact that smoking a drug that
is less harmful than both alcohol and tobacco carries the threat of
jail time as well as the lifetime shame of a criminal record, is the
real problem, not the recreational users.

- -- Bren Buckley, Hamilton.
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MAP posted-by: Andrew