To the Editor:

I appreciate the recent public-spirited expression by Cannabis Task Force (CTF) member Kimberly Levitt, MD, MPH [“Banning Cannabis Dispensaries Hurts Adults Who Have Legally Made the Choice to Use It,” Mailbox, March 23].

Dr. Leavitt is a local family physician and acupuncturist who laudibly wants to advance the interest of public health as she sees it. But her reasoning seems illogical and suggests for a public health expert like herself an inexplicable predisposition favoring retail shops selling a indisputably psychoactive substance demonstrably harmful to the health of many.

First, the presence or absence of retail marijuana shops in Princeton in no way will influence cannabis research and a local doctor’s capacity to give the best possible advice from the medical literature on cannabis. Second, while the lack of tested products makes harder her ability to advise, this also has nothing to do with marijuana shops in Princeton. Ironically, such lack is a matter that she as a public health expert should insist the CTF itself address before any shops are permitted anywhere.

Finally, Dr. Leavitt is not correct that now legally indulging adult consumers will be hurt by the absence of retail marijuana shops in Princeton. The new state law permitting distribution of marijuana products is under state control without any local oversight or restriction. Adults can now legally source, receive, and consume cannabis delivered directly to their homes, regardless of whatever ordinance Princeton may adopt. Presumably, such products will have to identify their contents and conform to regulatory standards, although nothing in this regard has yet been determined by the FDA or other agency, another point she and her CTF colleagues should require as a precondition to allowing any retail marijuana shops in town.

Thomas H. Pyle
Balsam Lane