Re: "Would pot have meant a mellow celebration?" letter, Jan. 8.

The letter-writer muses about whether pot-smoking partiers would cause less trouble than alcohol-impaired citizens. In Jamaica in the early 1960s, I worked a few shifts in the Kingston Public Hospital Emergency ward and the answer is: not likely.

At that time, ganja (marijuana), although illegal, was readily available in Jamaica and relatively cheap to purchase. Labourers carried machetes much as a Canadian might carry a pocket knife. When a ganja-impaired man was angry, he often attacked another and inflicted horrible wounds. I remember one casualty who put up his forearm for protection and had the hand sliced off.

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