Susan Martinuk, in her Dec. 15 column “Legalized marijuana opens Pandora’s box,” provided an inaccurate and incomplete set of claims about marijuana and its claimed dangers.
I write, not as a user, but as a pharmacologist who has followed the sordid story hyping dangers of pot since the LeDain Report of the 1970s. That report summarized the claims about the dangers of marijuana and also compared them to the consequences of the illegality of marijuana use, something Martinuk ignored. It recommended legalization.
First, many of her claims are in disagreement with the current evidence. There is no reliable evidence that marijuana smoking per se causes the same consequences to the airway that tobacco smoking does. Similarly, that some marijuana smokers have mental illness is not a valid basis for claiming any causal role of cannabis in these. The claim that, in some people, marijuana is addicting does not justify making it illegal. Consider that tobacco smoking is clearly addicting and alcohol consumption can be, but these are legal acts. It is certainly true that marijuana consumption is less directly damaging to individuals and to society than either smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol.
Now consider the harm in making marijuana consumption illegal. The clearest examples are in the U.S. and Canada, where many young people are in jail for consuming it. The direct and indirect costs of their imprisonment is in the billions of dollars. The consequences on their lives can be disastrous. Making marijuana illegal provides a basis for the formation of criminal gangs to raise, smuggle and sell it, providing the gangs profits as well as connections to the handling of other illegal drugs. Already, 21 U.S. states have passed laws making medical marijuana consumption legal.
There is a growing body of evidence that cannabis, cannabinoids and related agents can have therapeutic effects in chronic pain, nausea and other chronic problems. Research into the medical uses of cannabis and related products will proceed more rapidly if the issue of the legality of its medical use is resolved.
On balance, it should be clear that the time is over for fear-mongering about the dangers of legalizing marijuana. The benefits of legalization far outweigh the costs, and any benefits, of continuation of the war on marijuana.
Edwin E. Daniel of Victoria is professor emeritus of pharmacology at the University of Alberta.
