Pubdate: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Elizabeth Rains Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n419/a03.html BE SKEPTICAL TOWARD U.S. RHETORIC ABOUT DRUGS Re: U.S. official: Canadian pot no soft drug, March 11 This story cites 120,000 pot-linked emergency room visits in the U.S. each year. But why did reporter Tom Blackwell fail to state what types of injuries could cause such a quasi-epidemic? How about a woman visiting an emergency room and saying, "Gee, I sprained my ankle while jogging, and I was high on marijuana"? Or a businessman complaining, "I was a passenger in a car when it was hit by a drunken driver. My arm seems broken. Good thing I had been smoking pot. It calmed my nerves a bit"? Isn't it time that Canadians scoffed at the inflated rhetoric that spews out of the United States about anything associated with marijuana? Reporters, ask the proper questions, please. Same to you and your Public Safety Ministry, Anne McLellan. Elizabeth Rains Instructor Langara College Publishing and Journalism programs - --- MAP posted-by: Beth