Pounding headache

Re: “Legalized pot opens Pandora’s box of problems,” Susan Martinuk, Opinion, Dec. 7.

I am not an advocate of recreational self-medication in any form. However, when a reputable paper like the Herald gives voice to the “my opinions trump your logic” crowd, I get a headache.

Susan Martinuk’s column is so crammed with histrionics and pseudo-intellectual rationalization, it is hard to know where to start dissecting it.

The argument that because it is illegal it must be bad, is one of the more sinister aspects of the distorted reasoning that prevails with emotional issues. While law-abiding behaviour is generally a laudable trait, the context in which it is presented here seems to suggest there is no such thing as a bad law. If, as she says “... the primary reason young people gave for not using cannabis or for stopping its use was its illegal status,” any consideration of the validity of the prohibition law is rendered moot!

Another questionable aspect of this diatribe is the uncritical reference to studies purporting to support a particular belief, as long as it is the belief being promoted. Martinuk cites a “study of 14,000 Ontarians” claiming to show that “anxiety and mood disorders were most common among daily marijuana users.” This is a completely meaningless correlation without any causal mechanism to explain it.

It could be that people with mood disorders are simply more likely to use marijuana. I have always believed in the notion that the bedrock of democracy is formed from the unwavering support of the principle that an issue important enough to motivate legislated sanctions is also important enough to demand a reasoned discussion of its merits. Now, I am going to self-medicate with an aspirin for this headache.

Mark Botkin, Calgary