Your April 8 article "Science explains differences between smoking pot, tobacco" appeared in a timely fashion.
As a licensed clinical social worker, I have worked with both clients in severe physical pain and those addicted to various substances. It's important to remember that the high-potency marijuana of today and its various hybrids are not the same pot that hippies used to smoke in the 1960s.
Nevertheless, just as with most prescription drugs, marijuana has a number of important health benefits, especially as it comes to alleviating severe and intolerable physical pain. At the same time, though, marijuana today as a drug also has a number of deleterious effects on brain chemistry, impairs people's senses for various physical activities and may have an unknown impact on the respiratory system.
Hopefully, the current marijuana law -- however it was modified, altered, and changed by the Utah State Legislature against the public's wishes -- will somehow result in a compromise that will alleviate the suffering of thousands of Utahns while at the same time keep the rest of Utahns safe from the dangers that marijuana may pose.
Tab L. Uno, Clearfield