Letter to the editor: Smoking marijuana detrimental to health

I am very concerned with the national and state governments’ trend to legalize marijuana for recreational use for the purpose of the governments’ insatiable need for tax revenue. Our governor and lieutenant governor, along with some legislators from both parties, are proposing to do just that.

My concerns are scientific, not moral. For many years now we have discouraged people from smoking tobacco for the obvious scientifically documented negative health reasons and the associated costs to treat those health conditions. It has cost this nation hundreds of billions of dollars to treat those conditions. Do we really think the young adults are not going to smoke marijuana? Are they going to make brownies or cookies with it? Healthwise, is smoking marijuana not just as bad as smoking tobacco?

Also, it is the undisputed opinion of many drug treatment professionals that marijuana is a gateway drug for the use of harder drugs. There is also undisputed scientific evidence that marijuana alters the brain of young adults in an extremely negative manner.

If there is any validity in the above concerns, then I feel people should contact their legislators to reconsider this matter.

John L. Petrancosta Sr.

Shaler