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AAP News Vol. 13 No. 7 July 1997, p. 24 © 1997 American Academy of Pediatrics
1 Westchester, Ill.
I fully share the concerns expressed by Drs. G. Comerci and R. Heyman in their Commentary (April AAP News) to the Periodic Survey of AAP Fellows titled "Issues Surrounding Drug Legalization." Together with the authors of the commentary, I regret that a significant number of AAP fellows underappreciate: the role of marijuana as a potentially detrimental factor in young adolescents' development and behavior; marijuana's addictive qualities; and marijuana as an introductory substance in the chronic use of alcohol and hard illicit drugs. To insist that the best way to win the war on drugs is to stop waging it is one example of the outrageous misunderstandings that abound on what the proliferation of drugs will mean to the future of our children.
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