To the Editor:
I am not a pot smoker. I have been around people who liked their weed all my life.
Marijuana is not a narcotic. Not like the opioids or fentanyl. It is a schedule one drug in part because it served some political foolishness in the states. It is on record. Is it necessary for life? No!
It does have its medicinal applications. Chronic wasting conditions, chronic pain, depression, chemo … There is a type low THC with elevated levels of CBD that is reported to be highly effective in treating pediatric epilepsy.
The idea that people selling the commercial pot might lace with other things is true of each and every drug, drink or food we eat. Tylenol was the first drug to make the news years ago when someone shoplifted the drug, adulterated it, and put it back on the shelves.
I am not sure I would ‘legalize’ it. Decriminalize it, perhaps. Demand that anyone who wants to smoke it must grow their own. Purity assured … maybe.
As far as just saying no goes, please do, I have many times. I do not, however, make that choice for others.
Let me say first that I am not in favour of a woman taking kind of drugs, or drinking while pregnant. There is evidence that even the most banal of drugs can affect a developing child, even before the mother knows there is a bun in the oven.
I read a book once that made no bones about the dangers of alcohol, and many other drugs. The author stated as long as there were no adulterating substances in it, pot was oddly benign. They pushed the human equivalent of 16 joints a day through some poor rats and could find no detectable rise in the rate of birth defects in the pups.
Do I think people high on pot should be driving, working, or operating on me? Of course not. No more than I would want someone high on anything else doing any of those things.
Marijuana is not a moral issue. It is a legal issue.
Someone once stated that morality does not change. It is immoral to lie, cheat or steal. No amount of legislation will change that. The legality of something is another matter.
Man-made laws are necessary, but their morality can be questionable. Ask Monsanto.
Eva Sartorius,
High Prairie