Published http://www.mapinc.org/resource/tips.htm Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 Source: Times, The (UK) Copyright: 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd Contact: http://www.the-times.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454 Author: Ray Aldridge Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1270/a05.html MARIJUANA RESEARCH GIVES DRUG 'SAFE BILL OF HEALTH' Sir, Susan Greenfield refers to cannabis causing "severe shrinkage and, indeed, death of brain cells". These claims are apparently based on research which was discredited many years ago. Monkeys were suffocated in the presence of cannabis, and it was the oxygen deprivation which caused the brain damage, not the cannabis. She suggests that alcohol is not as damaging to the brain as cannabis. Alcohol is a poison that has caused many deaths directly, and many more because of chronic use; no one has ever died of cannabis poisoning. On the other hand cirrhosis of the liver is not a subtle condition, and it has been irrefutably demonstrated that alcohol kills brain cells. Sincerely, RAY ALDRIDGE 389 North Gardner Drive, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32548. July 14. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake