Marijuana Policy Project

Any discussion of Dr. Nicholas A. Pace's letter, "Marijuana use is dangerous," (Daily Star, June 30) must be prefaced by the fact that there isn't one credible scientific study that proves marijuana is a dangerous herb — not one.

To the contrary, in an analysis contained in a recent European Union report on cannabis published on June 26 by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, author Robin Room stated that "On every comparison of dangerousness we have considered, cannabis is at or near the bottom in comparison with other psychoactive substances."

It should also be noted that Dr. Pace is a professional associate of Dr. Gabriel Nahas, a notorious anti-marijuana zealot whose studies regarding the purported dangers of marijuana were so biased and unscientific that he was fired by the National Institute of Health in 1976 and — under ridicule from his peers — renounced all of his studies in 1983.

Dr. Pace claims that smoking marijuana exposes an individual to twice the number of carcinogens as tobacco, yet he failed to mention that the active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, according to researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.

He also failed to mention that in 1999 a study by the National Institute of Medicine concluded that "Scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs, primarily THC, for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation."

The bottom line is: any fool can claim marijuana is dangerous — but there isn't one who can prove it.

Walter F. Wouk, Cobleskill