Avoid pot hysteria

Regarding “Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is right about marijuana (Opinion, HoustonChronicle.com): Powerful cannabis has always been around, ranging from Thai Stick in the 1960s to hashish, a powerful cannabis extract that has been around for thousands of years. The National Academy of Science stated, “Conclusive scientific evidence available today establishes the efficacy of the use of whole plant cannabis to treat a number of clinical conditions, among them chronic pain, nausea and treating spasticity associated with diseases like multiple sclerosis.”

Cannabis use has never killed even one person. Nearly all hard-drug users likely did start with cannabis and probably a beer or two, but way more than 90 percent of pot users do not move on to other drugs. The author’s claims regarding suicide have no reference I could find anywhere other than within his own organization.

Following implementation of the laws to legalize cannabis in Colorado, there was an increase in emergency room visits by those who took too large a dose of edibles, but via warnings and now common knowledge, those numbers have nearly disappeared. Because cannabis molecules stay in a users system for up to 30 days, any analysis that shows a correlation between cannabis use and traffic accidents is at best suspect. Dean Becker, Houston