Pubdate: Thu, 10 Jan 2013
Source: Post-Standard, The (Syracuse, NY)
Copyright: 2013 Advance Publications
Contact: http://www.syracuse.com/mailforms/opinion/index.ssf
Website: http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/686
Author: Chris Lynch

LETTER ON MARIJUANA HAD IRRELEVANT CONCLUSION

To the Editor:

In regard to the Wednesday letter by James L. Greenwald, M.D., I must 
take offense at the irrelevant conclusions posited as a response for 
the call to legalize medical marijuana. He cites an article 
concerning diversion of medical marijuana to teens. I suggest he 
pursue the website for the Office of National Drug Control Policy to 
find that nearly one-third of people age12 and over who used drugs 
for the first time in 2009 began by using a prescription drug 
non-medically. Surely this fact would not lead the good doctor to 
conclude prescription drugs are an enormous harm outweighing their 
intended medical use?

Similarly, the effect on developing adolescents of prescription or 
over-the-counter drugs can be of equal or greater harm then abuse of 
medical marijuana. Surely the doctor can understand the benefit of 
proper use of these drugs by adults far outweighs the cost of 
removing them from our medicine cabinets for merely the sake of 
children's safety.

As a doctor, he should understand that the notion of "primum non 
nocere," which means "first do no harm," extends beyond what he 
writes on his prescription pad.

Chris Lynch

Syracuse
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom