Re: "Still fighting the War on Drugs," Sunday: Edwin Meese III and Charles Stimson need a reality check. No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose. Unlike alcohol, marijuana does not cause violent behavior. Unlike cigarettes, marijuana does not cause cancer. Even the government's Institute of Medicine found that "compared to most other drugs ... dependence among marijuana users is relatively rare." We should not criminalize responsible adults for using something less harmful than alcohol. Rather, society should regulate who can sell, purchase, and use marijuana - the same way we do for alcohol and tobacco. The alternative is keeping marijuana confined to an illegal market in which drug dealers offer no quality control, commit acts of violence to defend their turf, and have no qualms about selling to children. Mike Meno Director of communications Marijuana Policy Project Washington [end]
In his letter in the Sept. 12 Argus Leader, Dr. Mick Vanden Bosch erroneously claims that marijuana is a "more dangerous drug" than cigarettes. Such a wildly inaccurate statement calls into question the merits of his opposition to the medical marijuana measure South Dakotans will be voting on this November. Almost 440,000 Americans die every year as a direct result of tobacco use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 20,000 die from prescription drug overdose. [continues 145 words]
Few people on either side of the marijuana debate would disagree that outdoor illegal marijuana growing operations are enormous problems for the environment in California and states across the country. But when you phrase the debate by asking whether or not these illegal grows are "worth fighting," you miss the point entirely. Officials have been "fighting" these outdoor grows for nearly 30 years - since the creation of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) in 1983 - and by every objective standard they have only made the problem worse, squandering millions of precious tax dollars and law enforcement resources in the process. [continues 213 words]
Earlier this week in Michigan, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart that has significant implications for the thousands of seriously ill Americans across the country who legally use medical marijuana under state law, but still face employer discrimination because of the continued stigma attached to the medicine that brings them relief. The plaintiff in the case is Joseph Casias, a 30-year-old married father of two, who was wrongfully fired from his job at a Battle Creek, Mich., Wal-Mart after he tested positive for marijuana following a drug screen. [continues 754 words]
D.C. Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham might be an unlikely advocate for overhauling our nation's broken marijuana laws, but he articulated a central truth about the harms associated with marijuana and marijuana prohibition ["As D.C. votes on marijuana, seeds already firmly planted," front page. May 4]. "People don't feel marijuana is dangerous," Newsham said, "but it is, because of the way it is sold." Exactly. Marijuana is virtually nontoxic, incapable of producing a fatal overdose and much less dangerous than both alcohol and tobacco. But by keeping marijuana illegal, our policies have created an underground, unregulated market that is controlled by criminals and violent gangs. [continues 72 words]
Charlie Smith needs a reality check ("Prosecutor at odds with medical marijuana," March 19). His opposition to Maryland's medical marijuana bill flies in the face of all available scientific evidence and the urging of scores of medical professionals, including the Maryland Board of Pharmacy, Maryland Pharmacists Association, and Maryland Nurses Association, who all endorse the bill. Smith is a law-enforcement official -- not a doctor. He has no professional qualifications to decide whether or not medical marijuana is a "proven drug" for certain conditions, and he has no business broadcasting his ignorance on the topic. [continues 115 words]
Lynn Erickson is horribly misinformed about medical marijuana. Erickson claims the medical marijuana debate is a ruse to end the prohibition on marijuana. It is not. Marijuana has a 5,000-year recorded history as an effective medicine. Research has shown that marijuana can relieve such debilitating symptoms as nausea, appetite loss, muscle spasms and certain types of pain. This evidence has been acknowledged by the American College of Physicians, American Nurses Association and many other health organizations. Even the American Medical Association recently urged the federal government to reconsider the classification that currently bars medical use. [continues 105 words]
If Arthur T. Dean agrees that "medical questions are best determined by science" ("Balanced media needed in medical marijuana debate," Dec. 16), he should take heed of the small mountain of peer-reviewed scientific research that has shown medical marijuana to be a safe and effective treatment for a wide range of conditions, including cancer, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis. Such research has resulted in scores of esteemed health organizations - -- including the American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association, American Nurses Association, American Academy of HIV Medicine and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society -- officially recognizing that marijuana has legitimate medical value. [continues 214 words]
While testifying Dec. 3 in Harrisburg against a medical marijuana bill that would protect sick and in some cases dying patients from arrest and possibly jail, Sharon Smith, of Moms- Tell, said, "Let the medical experts make this decision, not the legislators." Exactly. That's why Pennsylvania needs a medical marijuana law (like 13 other states already have and a dozen more, including New Jersey, are considering): So decisions about effective treatment and proper medication can be made by patients and their doctors -- not by politicians and law enforcement officers. [continues 124 words]
Your call for the legalization and regulation of marijuana in California ("Time to get real about marijuana," Editorial, Oct. 11) was one state officials should seriously consider. Marijuana is California's largest cash crop, valued at almost $14 billion annually, yet it remains completely untaxed. Instead, the majority of marijuana profits go exclusively to Mexican drug cartels waging a vicious criminal war on our country's southern border. A recent front-page article in the Washington Post explained how America's growing medical marijuana industry has helped cut into the cartels' profits (and power) line -- accomplishing something American law enforcement has not been able to. [continues 151 words]
I was disturbed to see that a recent health column by Sarah Baldauf about the effects of marijuana ("What Parents Need to Know About Pot," Oct. 6, 2009) was in fact a verbatim reprint of a syndicated Aug. 2008 article, and wasn't updated with any new findings published on the topic since the article was first written more than a year ago. Much research since Aug. 2008 has cast further doubt on claims about the harms of marijuana. For example, the claim that marijuana use leads to "a greater risk of cancer to the head and neck" was refuted by two 2009 studies. One, in the journal of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, & Prevention, found the risk of head and neck cancer "was not elevated" among marijuana users. Another, in Cancer Prevention Research, found that people who use marijuana actually have a lower risk of head and neck cancer than people who don't use marijuana. [continues 113 words]
