Ganja, the youth and academics THE EDITOR, Sir: YOUR ISSUE of August 28, 2001 contained on pages one and two, two articles about which I would like to comment. Page 2 has a picture of a group of boys smoking marijuana cigarettes. These boys appear, in my estimation, to be teenagers. Two of them have in one hand a Guinness Stout while the other hand is engaged in assisting the smoking of what is described as a marijuana cigarette. The third young man has an unidentified substance in his right hand but his left hand is bedecked with a ring on every finger. It is instructive to note that he has what appears to be an earring in the lobe of his left ear. By all the known criteria, these three young men would be described in your youth magazine as "cool" and being "with it", in the latest styles and the latest fashion. Page one contains a report about four Jamaicans that finished in the top five in their subjects in the world in the recently concluded University of Cambridge General Certificate Examination. I would be interested to get the following information: How many of the four Jamaicans stated, Kalia Skeete of Campion College, Dameta Gayle of Wolmers' Girls, Jodi-Ann Johnson of Exed Community College and Stephanie Malcolm of Immaculate Conception High School engaged in the smoking of marijuana during their teenage years or more importantly in the period before and during the examination referred to. It would also be instructive for a follow-up on the three gentlemen identified in the photograph if we could find their present employment or their status at school, to find out if the smoking of marijuana has assisted them in gaining employment or in doing as well as the students referred to on page one of your newspaper. Such a comparison would assist me in counselling young people as to the pros and cons of marijuana in their formative years as we now seem to be firmly on the path to decriminalise the use of ganja (marijuana) for private personal use. I am, etc., Dr. PAUL WRIGHT 14 Spanish Court New Kingston
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