Friday, 30 December 2022 07:21

Maybe alcohol should be the illegal drug. Remember prohibition?

(Featured in Letters to the Editor, Pocono Record)

This is responding to the Letter to the Editor from a New Jersey resident warning of the dangers of legalizing marijuana in PA. All of the dangers he listed: use of which can cause slower reactions, coordination, reduced brain functions like attention, memory and learning, affects driving while use (DUI) are all true!

They, and more affects are also true of the legal use of alcohol. Alcohol use undoubtedly has major medical consequences: liver disease, nerve system deterioration and the medical condition known as delirium tremens. It can and has been reported on death certificates as the cause of death. It is physically addictive. Alcohol use often results in destroyed families, careers, results in violent behaviour, and may require months of inpatient rehab.

These effects are not associated with marijuana use. In fact, medical use of marijuana has been recognized for centuries. Alcohol has no medical use, it is only a dietary and recreational use drug.

Based on the repeated arguments against legalization which includes controlling the growth, manufacture and sale of marijuana, it is more likely that alcohol use should be illegal. Actually, liquor prohibition didn’t work so well either.

Deb Boyle, Canadensis