Pubdate: Sat, 14 May 2016
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Eryn Yaromy
Contact:  http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Eryn Yaromy
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v16/n316/a03.html

MARIJUANA IS INNOCUOUS, HELPFUL

Re: "Dispensing marijuana is quackery," letter, May 6.

I've suffered from chronic insomnia since my early teens, and cannabis
has been the only thing that has helped me sleep regularly. Rather
than using man-made pharmaceuticals with well-documented and
frightening side effects, I've chosen to use cannabis before bed and
have had nothing but positive results.

I am not a miscreant: I graduated from both high school and university
with distinction and contribute to society with a steady job and
volunteerism. Where is this "mountain of evidence" saying that the
cannabis plant, which has been used since the Mesolithic era, is
unsafe for human consumption? Perhaps the writer has never had chronic
sleeping problems, severe muscle or joint pain, trouble eating due to
chemotherapy treatment or one of myriad other issues regular,
otherwise law-abiding citizens have found cannabis to be helpful with.
This evidence might be only anecdotal, but if cannabis helps people
with such issues, who is it hurting?

I also take issue with the outrageous and misguided comparison of
cannabis to alcohol - no one has ever died from using cannabis, nor
has this plant ever caused a person to go off the rails the way
alcohol can.

Thank goodness we are finally coming to our senses and legitimizing
the use of this helpful, innocuous plant. It will be fully legalized
in another year, so I suggest the writer should get over it.

Eryn Yaromy

Victoria 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D