To the editor: I know that Times journalists know the risks of using marijuana. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration warns that marijuana use includes the following dangers:
Permanent loss of IQ; depression, anxiety, suicidal planning and psychotic episodes; negative impact on timing, movement and coordination; slower reactions, lane weaving, decreased coordination, and difficulty reacting to signs and sounds on the road; birth defects; and relationship problems, worse educational outcomes, lower professional performance, and lower life satisfaction.
Despite all this, The Times has published articles defending all forms of marijuana use in our already troubled city.
But now that Times reporter Paige St. John and WeedWeek editor Alex Halperin have documented the additional dangers of pesticides and environmental destruction caused by the proliferation of marijuana cultivation, stores and consumption in California, the Times is ringing the alarm bell that should never have stopped ringing.
Marijuana is bad for you. If we valued our brain, our body, and our Earth as much as we value getting high, we could explore and inform healthier ways to enjoy ourselves and others.
Tori Mordecai, San Marino
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To the editor: His excellent research on pesticides in cannabis raises a problem that those of us working to ban illegal cannabis cultivation on public lands have long known: cartel-grown cannabis is not only finding its way to the legal market, but it is a key piece of it.
Since 2018, we have been ringing the national public health time bomb of illicit pesticides in cannabis. Carbofuran, a pesticide banned in the United States and smuggled from Mexico that is among the most toxic substances that exist, constantly appears in cultivation sites. A quarter teaspoon will kill a 400-pound black bear in minutes.
The public land farming sites we've seen typically contain wildlife carcasses, from threatened Pacific fishermen to game species.
Following significant national news coverage on the issue, farming on public lands has slowed, but the cartels have now moved their operations and poisons to private lands within communities.
While most of the cartels' illicit cannabis is shipped to Midwestern cities, a percentage remains in California and is widely available. The only real solution to this is improved testing of every product that reaches dispensaries, the closure of retail outlets that violate the law, and increased law enforcement against illicit production by cartels.
Richard McIntyre, Sacramento
The writer is director of the Cannabis Removal Project on Public Lands.
