'PSYCHOTIC EFFECTS'?

In a Nov. 18 letter attempting to debunk medical marijuana, Arthur
Zeidman (an ex-public defender from Walnut Creek) claimed that
marijuana is never "effective as medicine" and causes "lasting adverse
psychotic effects," concluding that marijuana "needs to stay illegal
unless and until it can be proven safe and effective as a regulated
medicine."

On the same principle, all the other unsafe and non-medically
effective things we ingest - tobacco, alcohol, high cholesterol foods
such as beef and ice cream, fried pork rinds, Twinkies (remember
Harvey Milk?), etc. - should be illegal as well.

Apparently, doctrinaire support for our marijuana policy causes
"psychotic effects."

Howard Tamler, Palo Alto