Pubdate: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 Source: Post-Standard, The (NY) Section: Neighbors Copyright: 2002, Syracuse Post-Standard Contact: http://www.syracuse.com/syrnewspapers/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/686 Author: Nicolas Eyle Note: Title by MAP Editor REGARDING THE DANGERS OF MARIJUANA To the Editor; It was interesting to see the full page article on the dangers of marijuana in your paper Monday morning. Reading it I noticed that nearly all the information was provided by NIDA, the government agency that has been providing the medical arguments in support of prohibition for years. There was no mention of the studies done by countless organizations around the world, many government sponsored, that have caused the international community to move in the direction of decriminalizing marijuana. Holland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, the U.K, France, even Ukraine either have legalized personal possession of marijuana or are on the verge of doing so. The US press however, still allows such propaganda about the dangers of marijuana to go unchallenged far too often. After the Canadian government recently approved a system to provide marijuana for those who need it for medical reasons the editor of the Canadian Medical Journal, Dr. John Hoey, stated that "Our view is that the government should probably take a little bit more bold step and decriminalize it. It turns out that it is really quite an innocuous drug..." Nicolas Eyle, executive director ReconsiDer: forum on drug policy www.reconsider.org - --- MAP posted-by: Beth