Pubdate: Sun, 17 Oct 2010
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2010 Michael Scrima
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n829/a03.html
Author: Michael Scrima

IS LEGALIZATION THE ANSWER? WEIGHING THE MERITS OF MARIJUANA

NO NEW IDEAS

Re: "Marijuana not without health risks - In legalization debate, the 
facts are often overlooked, says Itai Danovitch," Monday Viewpoints.

Professor Danovitch repeats the same vague but ominous warnings about 
the health risks of marijuana that we've been hearing since 1937, 
when the idea that smoking pot was dangerous and addictive first 
gained widespread acceptance.

Since he specializes in addictions, I can understand how Danovitch is 
predisposed to define things in those terms, but his article is 
contradictory. He labels the claim that "cannabis is not physically 
addictive" as misinformation, but in the next paragraph, he states 
that "addiction to marijuana does not cause dramatic physical dependence."

He goes on to attribute unnamed problems at work, in education and 
relationships to marijuana use, but I believe that could also simply 
be called "life."

He then speculates, but offers no proof, that marijuana use "may" 
have a negative effect on the psychiatric problems of "people with 
preexisting vulnerabilities" like schizophrenia or that it "may" 
actually make problems like anxiety and depression worse, in spite of 
the claims of people with those conditions that smoking relieves 
their symptoms.

I do agree with the professor that it's important to make a "decision 
on the basis of accurate facts." Unfortunately, there were precious 
few facts, and even fewer new ideas in his article.

Michael Scrima, Dallas
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