To the editor:
The Salem News reported on Oct. 15 that Rep. Ted Speliotis is leaning toward support of a bill to legalize and tax marijuana.
He further said, "I don't buy into, 'It's an entry-level drug.'"
I would like to know if Speliotis has spoken to heartbroken parents whose narcotic-addicted sons or daughters were introduced to the drug world by first using marijuana.
My personal experience in conducting group and individual counseling with drug addicts and adult probationers convicted of drug-related felonies, and, as a secondary-school psychologist, talking with high school students, is that for many of them marijuana was their initial drug experience.
I have served on governor-appointed task forces in Texas and Georgia to formulate drug prevention and treatment policies. The knowledge I gained in those years reaffirmed my position that marijuana can, in fact, be a gateway drug.
In addition, in my career as school psychologist, I have seen students at 8 in the morning who are "high" and not in a state of mind conducive to learning.
In the adolescent years, the brain is still in development and can be seriously affected by the use of alcohol and marijuana. In "Principles of Addiction Medicine," pediatricians Sharon Levy and John Knight write that "Marijuana use is associated with multiple health problems, including ... long-term adverse neuro-cognitive effects on executive functions such as focus, attention and ability to filter out irrelevant information. Chronic users are at risk of developing the well-described 'a-motivational syndrome,' leading to a slow, passive withdrawal from school, work and recreational activities."
Just as not every adolescent who drinks alcohol becomes an alcoholic, so not every adolescent who experiments with marijuana will go on to become addicted to heroin or other narcotics. But what is certain is that legalizing marijuana for adults will make the product more widely available to and used by adolescents (as is alcohol), with the accompanying health and social consequences.
As my grandmother used to say, "Resist beginnings, all too late the cure."
And, as for Mr. Speliotis, the voters should not buy the type of public policy (legalized marijuana) he will sell us if re-elected. The cost to our sons and daughters will be too high. We need to vote him out of office.
Claire M. Callahan
Topsfield
No Limits for Disabled Hunters at Mich. Base
Victim Identified in Fla. Face-chewing Attack
Radioactive Bluefin Tuna Crossed the Pacific
90 Guns Seized, Dozens Arrested in Oakland
Raw Video: Hail Storm Batters Oklahoma City
6-Year-Old Going to National Spelling Bee
California's Foie Gras Ban About to Begin
Video Essay: Funky Winkerbean Comic Turns 40
Hurricane Andrew Remembered, 20 Years Later
Judge's Ruling Halts Tenn. Mosque Construction
Romney in Las Vegas on Texas Primary Day
Sister Says She Reported Brother in Patz Killing
Even Fla. Police Shocked by Face-Mauling Attack
Angry Birds Spreading Their Wings
