Editor, The News: Thank you so much for your wonderful story and coverage of Fraser Valley MP Chuck Strahl's debate on marijuana. As one can see, I was successful in forcing the medical issue at the debate and was met with overwhelming support (90 per cent). I had a long meeting with Chuck over the issues we covered in your story and my personal case. He was blown away by the government's failure with medical marijuana. He agreed to take my issues directly to Health Minister Anne McLennan. [continues 61 words]
Richmond school district education committee member Christine McCreary, a London secondary Grade 12 student, does not condone the use of marijuana. Despite its socially acceptable status, McCreary agrees marijuana is a "gateway" drug; one that students as young as Grade 8 smoke which can lead to cocaine use by the time that same student reaches Grade 12. Any inferences taken from McCreary's comments in the Feb. 27 edition of the News that she, herself, smokes marijuana, are incorrect. The News apologizes for any misunderstanding this may have caused. [end]
To the editor: Re: John McDonald's column, Feb. 8, headlined: Cream of the Rehab Crop Make Stats Look Good. Addiction is a complex, chronic, progressive, physical, mental and spiritual condition, with a high relapse rate, and experience bears out that release from its grip requires total abstinence at the onset of treatment. Society will not bear the cost of providing holding facilities for those addicted to alcohol and drugs, so they can eventually decide to achieve the necessary clean time to permit treatment to take hold and become a new way of life. [continues 379 words]
Context Cognitive impairments are associated with long-term cannabis use, but the parameters of use that contribute to impairments and the nature and endurance of cognitive dysfunction remain uncertain. Objective To examine the effects of duration of cannabis use on specific areas of cognitive functioning among users seeking treatment for cannabis dependence. Design, Setting, and Participants Multisite retrospective cross-sectional neuropsychological study conducted in the United States (Seattle, Wash; Farmington, Conn; and Miami, Fla) between 1997 and 2000 among 102 near-daily cannabis users (51 long-term users: mean, 23.9 years of use; 51 shorter-term users: mean, 10.2 years of use) compared with 33 nonuser controls. [continues 3908 words]
An expert on growing marijuana pleaded not guilty yesterday in federal court to charges that he supplied cannabis to a San Francisco medicinal pot club. Ed Rosenthal of Oakland, who has written more than a dozen books on cultivating marijuana, is one of three men charged with producing more than 100 marijuana plants for sale at the Harm Reduction Center, a San Francisco medicinal marijuana club. The Feb. 12 raid was the third in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that federal anti-drug law makes no exception for seriously ill patients using pot under California's medicinal marijuana law, Proposition 215, approved by voters in 1996. [end]
The Study Tested 102 Heavy Users Of The Drug Long term marijuana users may have worse memories and poorer attention spans than other users of the drug, scientists say. Memory and attention span got "significantly" worse the longer a user had been taking the drug, according to tests done on those entering a US drugs treatment programme. But it is not clear whether giving up the drug will enable users to recover, and the research fuels the scientific debate over the true impact of marijuana use on the brain. [continues 263 words]
WASHINGTON - Utahn Scott M. Burns vowed Tuesday to bring together state, local and federal officials nationally to fight drugs if he is confirmed as the deputy director for state and local affairs for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Burns, the four-term elected Iron County attorney, who ran unsuccessfully twice for Utah attorney general, told the Senate Judiciary Committee he has spent his career trying to build such partnerships, including forming the first narcotics task force in Utah. "I have worked in the trenches. I hope to bring a message from the trenches, from state and local people, to you," he told senators during his confirmation hearing. "And I hope to take your message back to state and local government." [continues 361 words]
Editor -- I am deeply disturbed at the front-page headline of your newspaper, "I can tell them that this will be worse than Vietnam" (March 2). It does not look like a serious newspaper headline, but (quoting a senior FARC commander) that of the Colombian guerrillas' bulletin. The guerrillas are petrified at the fact that finally the United States will help the Colombian military in the country's fight against terrorism, and that the Colombian people have decided to confront them. Vietnam was a nightmare because the United States fought the people of Vietnam. Now we are going to help the people of Colombia, a huge difference. Civil resistance against guerrilla terrorism is at its highest. Guerrilla disinformation is not helping. MARIO VINASCO, Hayward [end]
Editor, The News: Re: (Much heat, little light at marijuana meeting, A8, Feb. 16) Perhaps I can shine a little light on the issue. Why do governments prohibit certain drugs? Is it to protect users from harm? No, that can't be the reason because users suffer more (adulterated drugs and jail time) when a drug is banned as compared to when it is legally available; and besides, the most dangerous drugs of all, alcohol and tobacco, are legal. Is it to reduce the crime associated with illegal drugs? [continues 88 words]
CIA-Guided Peru Action Killed Woman And Infant, Hurt Pilot American missionaries whose small plane was mistaken by CIA contract employees for a drug-runner's and was shot down over Peru last year are seeking $35 million in compensation from the U.S. government. They say they are frustrated by the lack of a response, and, if there is no settlement soon, they will sue. The husband of Veronica Bowers, who was killed with their infant daughter, Charity, in the incident; injured mission pilot Kevin Donaldson; and the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism Inc., which owned the plane, are upset that the government has not responded to the claim they submitted in June, said their attorney, Karen Hastie Williams. [continues 912 words]
