Letter: Ayotte is Wrong
Jerry Epstein
June 29, 2009
Concord Monitor (Concord, NH)
Your story on medicinal use of marijuana said, "State Attorney General Kelly Ayotte has spoken out against the bill, arguing that marijuana use leads to the use of other drugs..." ("Marijuana bill sent to Lynch," Monitor front page, June 25).
As a researcher for the Drug Policy Forum of Texas I find it common for officials (usually politicians or law enforcement officials) to make errors about basic drug facts. No major scientific study has ever supported Ayotte's claim. Over 96 percent of some 104 million marijuana users have never tried heroin. Over 65 percent have never tried cocaine (75 percent in Europe). Moreover, marijuana users generally seek relaxation, but cocaine is a stimulant that produces a radically different drug experience, one that doesn't come with marijuana.
About 70 percent of drug addicts are addicted only to alcohol. Most of the others first abuse alcohol and continue to abuse alcohol even after they become addicted to other drugs, almost 90 percent in the case of cocaine. Alcohol use normally precedes marijuana use, but among addicts the order in which they used the two drugs made no difference.
To argue against a medicine for the suffering is bad enough, but to do so on the basis of old wives' tales is irresponsible. |
