Re: Legalizing pot and ‘partial’ fetal alcohol syndrome [Oct. 26 South Peace News]
Once again I find myself wanting to address two different items in the paper.

1. The girl who may have ‘partial’ fetal alcohol syndrome. Fetal exposure to drugs and alcohol is a matter that requires far more attention than it now receives.
It is a sad commentary on our time, one that this girl and others will not ever recover from.
People may be able to learn certain coping skills – may – or be given supports. But they will always have this brain trauma.
I was a support worker for many years and have seen what it can do to people who would otherwise be running the show. I even took some pretty solid hits. The term Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is more exact. The range of disability varies from mild to severe. The diagnosis is made with some uncertainty as women who are faced with this question do not always admit to the full extent of their indulgence.
They are starting to understand as well that the father’s drinking can have an effect on certain genes. There is also a question about how the grandmother’s drinking can affect her grandchild.
A woman is born with all her ova. This is another quagmire, in an already messy situation.
FASD people can excel in school, or creatively, but cannot organize their lives or understand the consequences of their behaviour. Not every person with these issues has FASD either.
I agree with the writer about our good fortune in not having been born with that particular reason for being among the walking wounded. The world demands more and more conformity from people who cannot provide it. This girl will have trouble all her life with these issues and most of the people she meets won’t have any clue what the problems are.
One social worker whose opinion I respect stated that some of these kids who are fortunate enough to be raised in a stable environment can go on to lead ‘normal’ lives. What the kids, FASD or not, who have spend their childhood rotating through a shocking number of foster homes, have to deal with is another matter. For both to live in one heart…

2. Legalizing pot. I am not a pot smoker. I have been around people who liked their weed all my life.
Marijuana is not a narcotic. Not like the opioids or fentanyl. It is a schedule one drug in part because it served some political foolishness in the states. It is on record. Is it necessary for life? No!
It does have its medicinal applications. Chronic wasting conditions, chronic pain, depression, chemo … There is a type low THC with elevated levels of CBD that is reported to be highly effective in treating pediatric epilepsy.
The idea that people selling the commercial pot might lace with other things is true of each and every drug, drink or food we eat. Tylenol was the first drug to make the news years ago when someone shoplifted the drug, adulterated it, and put it back on the shelves.
I am not sure I would ‘legalize’ it. Decriminalize it, perhaps. Demand that anyone who wants to smoke it must grow their own. Purity assured … maybe.
As far as just saying no goes, please do, I have many times. I do not, however, make that choice for others.

Let me say first that I am not in favour of a woman taking kind of drugs, or drinking while pregnant. There is evidence that even the most banal of drugs can affect a developing child, even before the mother knows there is a bun in the oven.
I read a book once that made no bones about the dangers of alcohol, and many other drugs. The author stated as long as there were no adulterating substances in it, pot was oddly benign. They pushed the human equivalent of 16 joints a day through some poor rats and could find no detectable rise in the rate of birth defects in the pups.
Do I think people high on pot should be driving, working, or operating on me? Of course not. No more than I would want someone high on anything else doing any of those things.
Marijuana is not a moral issue. It is a legal issue.

Someone once stated that morality does not change. It is immoral to lie, cheat or steal. No amount of legislation will change that. The legality of something is another matter.
Man-made laws are necessary, but their morality can be questionable. Ask Monsanto.
Eva Sartorius,
High Prairie.