Many benefits of legal cannabis
In response to the misinformed letter of Nov. 14 “Legalization of pot a step backward”.
You say this issue of legalization of marijuana needs to be examined more closely. Cannabis has been used medically for thousands of years. No one has died from consuming pot. Evidence suggests that it originated in central Asia. Sometime near the end of the Pleistocene epoch it migrated to small geographic pockets; one grouping in western and southern Asia and one in what is now the Balkans and Caucasus Mountains.
Cannabis researchers are now starting to coalesce around a system of taxonomy prepared by Robert C. Clarke and Mark D. Merlin in their exhaustively researched book “Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany”. Using historical and recent publications as a launching pad, the most thorough examination of the cannabis plant to date, using archeological findings, historical accounts and DNA sequencing along with their own personal findings and observations to present a compelling explanation for their proposed taxonomy.
The writer of “Legalization a step backward” has obviously not read a complete, unbiased view of legalization. You said crime has gone up in Colorado and that is absolutely false. I have read and heard first hand from a relative living in Colorado that since legalization crime has dropped and youth are using it less.
There are many, many medical benefits to cannabis and I do not hear you speaking out against opiate use, alcohol and tobacco. These last three substances cause more grief and crime to rise and since you seem to find ault with our Canadian system, maybe you should move.
The Republican Party in the U.S. agress with your continued complaints of living in this wonderful country. Maybe you should live where you find the laws more tenable.
Laurel Coleman
Duncan