Legal pot doesn’t signal chaos

RE: Legal pot means more psychotic behaviour (Jan 12)

This letter correctly states drugs can aggravate and even cause psychosis. A sample size of one anecdote, though, is just that. Public policy should be based on scientific evidence derived from large, impartial studies that control for given factors.

Legal or illegal, pot is as much of a “gateway drug” as alcohol, or the adrenalin high that comes from driving fast; i.e. it’s not the substance that’s the issue, it’s the person. Psychosis may well rise — slightly overall, I predict — but I very much doubt our health-care teams will be “unable to deal with it.” And no one has made the informed argument that pot is “good because it’s legal.” That’s putting words in our mouths. Divorce is legal; violence is sometimes legal; no one sarcastically says, “It must be good because it’s legal” about either act. I’ve held a security licence for eight years and liaised with youth in crisis for a decade now; I’m by no means an expert, but in my observation of others, pot is like many other recreational or medical substances. It works for some and not others, it affects people differently, and the long-term effects of use on both the individual and the community depend on a number of things.

Autonomy of substance consumption is as much a fundamental right as freedom of association, or of speech, or self-defence. Chris Maxwell, Hamilton