Editor, The Star:

I must respond to Alan Randell's pro-illicit-drug letter.

Why? Because as a former pot-consumer - along with most of my former pot-consumption peers who I've bumped into these last half-dozen years - - I can attest to the permanent damage that marijuana can cause to the consumer's body and mind.

Scientific proof of such potential damage?

For one, there are the startling facts published in an article last September 17, in London's Guardian newspaper; it was authored by professor of psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry and hospital consultant, Robin Murray:

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