Volume 5
Issue # 10-A

May 13, 2004

"A Letter to Another Editor"

** This in in response to Jon Ferry's column on May 13, 2004 "Mayor Campbell is off the mark on marijuana" in The Province. **

Ferry seems so sure that "smoking marijuana is at least as harmful as smoking tobacco." Indeed, smoking anything is not particularly good for your health. It will be linked to such things as heart problems, lung cancers, and emphysema, among other things. But to say that smoking marijuana is worse than smoking is a lie. It has been proven that the withdrawal effects from tobacco are in fact WORSE than those found in marijuana users. The addiction level for nicotine is far greater than that for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Ferry says, "being a pothead is like being an alcoholic." Another misconception. Marijuana use has not been linked to increased aggression, promiscuity or violence. Indeed, marijuana has been proven to have the exact opposite effect. An alcoholic, on the other hand, is much more prone to unbridled aggression. Case in point, picture a drunken bar fight, then picture a group of friends sitting in a circle smoking pot a la That 70s Show. The only reason why alcohol and tobacco (and caffeine, and other drugs, and yes they are drugs) are legal, while heroin, marijuana, and cocaine are not is simply a political (and economical) endeavour rather than a medical/health-related endeavour. George Washington owned a tobacco plantation, so clearly, he would not outlaw tobacco; whereas marijuana and opium were "lower-class" drugs used by the working poor and immigrants, so OBVIOUSLY outlawing those drugs is much more appropriate . . . right? Ferry, you are the one who is off the mark on marijuana.

Michael Kwan
Vancouver, BC