Mr. Baack (“Calef: Don’t ignore marijuana’s dangers,” Sep. 20 letter to the editor), it’s time we break the trend of using stereotypes to prove points, especially when the stereotype is not accurate. Smoking marijuana doesn’t make you “dim-witted.”

Studies have shown that marijuana may lower your IQ by up to 2 points if you are a heavy smoker, but those adverse affects will go away after abstaining from smoking for a week.

One of the reasons that the number of people getting treatment for marijuana is so high is because it is by far the most widely used illicit drug.

It seems you listed the numerous short-term effects of marijuana as a scare tactic. Well, many of those are on the short-term effects list for alcohol as well. This double standard has existed for far too long in our country.

Moreover, 150,000+ people die from alcohol poisoning per year. Can you guess how many people die from a marijuana overdose? A big whopping ZERO!

I agree with you when you say, “Pot is obviously not harmless.” But I contend that the side effects and inherent dangers with marijuana are no greater of a threat to a person than the negative effects of other legal drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco.

There is too much fear that surrounds legalizing pot. Hopefully, Nevada will lead the way in calming some of these fears. Once people are properly educated about this drug, the double-standards and erroneous stereotypes we have today will be gone.

Jared Strong

Junior

Computer Science