Pubdate: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 Source: Macon Telegraph (GA) Copyright: 2014 The Macon Telegraph Publishing Company Contact: http://www.macontelegraph.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/667 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n034/a05.html Author: J.C. Smith REAL DANGERS I found political pundit Erick Erickson's remarks in his column "The politics of pot" (1/10) to be unsupported and mainly fearmongering with outdated concepts. While Erickson takes potshots at medical marijuana and its recreational usage as dangerous "unbridled hedonism" and leading to another sexual revolution, he also makes the assumption that "perhaps we should just wait a few years then re-examine Colorado before rushing on." Where is his caution about opioid drugs? I suggest Erickson has avoided looking at medical heroin in the same light, such as the popular opiates like morphine, methadone, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone or Oxycotin, that have led to more addictions and deaths than marijuana ever has. Certainly the Hillbilly Heroin epidemic remains rampant as the so-called "pill mills" dispense opioid painkillers like Halloween candy, creating an unbridled epidemic of narcotic addiction to the point that Thomas Frieden, M.D., director for the CDC, minced no words in 2011 when he said that "physicians have supplanted street corner drug pushers as the most important suppliers of illicit narcotics." Before Erickson jumps on his conservative bandwagon prematurely denouncing the effects of marijuana on our society, let's hear his views on these opiates that are far more dangerous, addictive and deadly. But like Rush Limbaugh, a known Oxycotin addict, I doubt Erickson understands the real dangers in these drugs. J.C. Smith Warner Robins - --- MAP posted-by: Matt