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Pot users painted unfairly

3 min read

This is a rebuttal to a letter headlined “Reefer Madness” in the Sept. 2 edition.

Oh, my, ignorance is bliss. All pot users are overweight, homeless and uneducated slobs, really? Of the countless thousands of people I have met in my lifetime, many that are current and/or former pot users, greater than 90 percent are gainfully employed and over half of them are trade school and/or college educated. People that pay their taxes, own homes and often raise families.

The reason marijuana is not legal in most states deals with money, politics and elections.

Additionally, in an article I read in 2013, one study suggests that people who regularly smoke weed are skinnier than that of the general population.

The data included was from more than 4,500 adult Americans – 579 of whom were current smokers, meaning they smoked in the last 30 days. Roughly 2,000 persons had used it in the past, while another 2,000 had never used the drug.

Studied was the body’s response to eating sugars, their levels of the hormone insulin and blood sugar levels while having not eaten in nine hours, and after eating sugar.

It was determined that not only are pot users skinnier, but their body has a healthier response to sugar.

When we take in too many simple sugars over a lifetime, this system can go haywire, and our cells stop reacting to insulin, a syndrome called insulin resistance, a precursor to Type 2 diabetes. Pot users also had more “good” cholesterol and smaller waists. This study was published in the American Journal of Medicine in May 2013.

I gather that you have never heard of CBD oil that is being legalized with the passage of laws in many states, permitting the medicinal use of the marijuana to aid children with epilepsy, or the marijuana that is given as treatment to many cancer patients to help with nausea and/or appetite? What about the medicinal marijuana used on those who suffer from PTSD and certain anxieties? I could go on and on with articles and studies.

I agree that it is a drug and certainly not for everyone, just like anything the FDA approves is not for everyone. You cannot discount the numerous benefits to the medical community and the potential to help so many in the general population.

Respectfully, my suggestion to the previous letter writer is that you actually do some research next time before you pass judgment on a medicine that you have little education on.

Kelly Homan

McDonald

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