In reading a letter from a medical doctor about why he would vote to legalize marijuana, I note that he emphasizes legalistic and emotional reasons for his beliefs rather than medical ones. He doesn’t “think anyone should go to jail for using marijuana and to decriminalize without legalizing simply funds a criminal underworld.”
Using that reasoning, we could decriminalize heroin use under the belief that doing so would defund the criminal underworld.
Hah! But the writer’s degree is not in law enforcement or sociology. It is an M.D., and that degree is earned on the basis of a rigorous study of sciences bases on experiment and verification of facts, most recently by randomized controlled double blind studies.
The writer seems to include some of this information by saying that “we have sent a very dangerous message to people that marijuana is not only safe, but full of health benefits.”
He states that “there is a lot we do not know about marijuana but some of the data is very concerning with regard to the impact it can have on teenage brains, fetal brain development and people with mental health issues.”
How much and more so. Marijuana has been shown to be addicting, a gateway drug, to destroy gray matter (no matter what age), and precipitate and worsen schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Why legalize poison? If Gov. Charlie Baker is so concerned about opioid overdoses, he should start with gateway drugs like alcohol, nicotine, and marijuana.
And to the recent letter-writer I say: An M.D. degree should make one value evidence rather than the productions of snake oil pushers.
Newton D. Bowdan
South Hadley