In reply to Colin Mayes’ Drug use a concern, I read with interest your comments on drug use.
Yes, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse states, in a study released April 2006, that the cost of substance abuse to be $3.8 billion.
But you conveniently left out the breakdown. Tobacco is $17 billion (42.7 per cent), alcohol is $14.6 billion (36.6 per cent) and all illegal drugs are $8.2 billion (20.7 per cent).
That tells me that 89.3 per cent of that cost is taken up by alcohol and tobacco, whereas you make it seem like illegal drug abuse is the main cost.
According to new research by the Harvard Medical School and the VA Boston Healthcare System, a family history of schizophrenia is the underlying basis for schizophrenia, not cannabis use.
Former surgeon general Jocelyn Elders characterized marijuana succinctly on CNN while declaring her support for legalization: “Marijuana is not physically addictive. Holland began liberalizing its marijuana laws in part to close the so-called gateway effect, and now the country has fewer young pot smokers that move to harder drugs compared to other nations (from Marijuana as a gateway drug; The myth that will not die).”
The University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, in a fact sheet, says, several well-designed and large-scale studies, including one in Washington State, have failed to find any increased risk of lung or upper airway cancer in people who have smoked marijuana.
The indicators go to tobacco as the culprit. Marijuana smoking does appear to increase cough, sputum production, airway inflammation, and wheeze. As for costs to the legal system, about 80 per cent of cases tying up the system are due to possession charges.
A quick check of the countries that have legalized pot have found reductions in drug use as well as a decrease in court costs.
R. Payne
Vernon
