POT: Reasons to be alarmed

Recently “60 Minutes” (CBS News) did a 20-minute piece on the relationship between schizophrenia and young male shooters perpetuating horrifying and increasingly frequent mass shootings that are devastating our society.

In June, the New England Journal of Medicine published an article on the many effects of marijuana use on young minds, among them, lower IQ scores and an increased rate of schizophrenia in users verses nonusers. The article points out that marijuana isn’t the cause of schizophrenia, it appears to accelerate a latent psychosis already present into overt schizophrenic action.

Couple these two pieces of data with evidence, how is it controversial that in states where citizens are allowed to arm themselves, gun violence is reduced? Plus, in areas (Chicago) where guns are strictly proscribed, death by firearms is high.

Given all this, couldn’t the rational mind conclude that one should be tightly controlled and not the other? Instead, states are legalizing marijuana at an uncomfortable rate.

I won’t make this more complex by commenting on teenage potheads who play violent computer games. And, if you want a scare, go to Google and type in “marijuana and e-cigarettes.” Who would have guessed that Snoop Dogg would have enough of a brain left to be a successful entrepreneur?

DICK SHELDON, M.D.

Coeur d’Alene