Letter:
Dear Editor:  I have seen nothing but positive comments and studies on the use of medical and recreational marijuana displayed in your newspapers and on TV, in southern Nevada.  Are there any studies that you are aware of that discusses the negative effects of marijuana? 

Just a few questions:  1- Do individuals build up a tolerance to marijuana?  Do you need more and more of the drug to receive the same effect to the body?  If so will that cause major problems in the future?  2- Could you explain the term synergistic effect, as related to drug use?   We have a local young lady, probably, still serving time in prison for killing a number of youths, as they picked up litter along the freeway. One of her drugs of choice was marijuana.  3- What about carbon monoxide, will it create a problem?  Anything that is smoked, gives off carbon monoxide, the red blood cell will except carbon monoxide, according to studies, 30 times, or 3000% faster than oxygen.  Will that create problems for the marijuana user?  4- Does smoking marijuana give off residue, such as tar, with tobacco?  If so would it be light green instead of light brown?  Would it cause cancer or emphysema, after all it took over 200 years to determine that tobacco caused cancer.  We should know a few years down the road.  5- Would the expense, in the future, be more that the benefits or income, that was explained in your article?  After all the drug is a depressant and hallucinogen and the most recent studies from Colorado show that more youth are ending up in the emergency rooms because of the drug.  Your research needs to be stated honestly. 

I have many more questions about this drug but if the main reason for the legalization of this drug is to fill the city coffers, why don’t we allow this company to grow poppies in one corner of the building and put a meth lab in the other corner, that way people could get a high and low at the same time.  If this drug is such a wonder drug, why don’t we have the pharmacist sell it legally, instead of a pothead, in a building on the outskirts of town?  Just wondering! 

Eugene M. Hughes

Mesquite, NV