JUST REGULATE POT

Thank you for giving voice to the now growing majority of us who
support most of what was written by Dr. John Frantz ("Marijuana
should be quasi-legal," Oct. 27). What the good doctor refers to as a
"new category," however, is a category that already exists and it is
called "regulation" - a more fitting term than "legalization."

We regulate all kinds of ingestible substances to widely varying
degrees, and marijuana should be no different. Restrictions on
advertising, as the doctor uses for his example of "new," have been
in place on tobacco for many years.

Unfortunately even Frantz has fallen prey to reefer madness. A
retired psychiatrist, Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard, who studies
schizophrenia, has stated that research does not link marijuana and
schizophrenia. He contends that the consistent 1 percent worldwide
occurrence of the condition indicates marijuana has no influence upon
its frequency. The origin of this myth, like so many other marijuana
myths, is politics, not science.

- - Bill Downing, Reading