To the editor: I just wanted to say how much my husband and I appreciate your publication, Together. We have found that it is a relief to have such helpful and interesting information out there. It is great to see that a universal issue such as addiction, which affects so many lives, can be presented without the usual stigma. Instead, your articles prompt open, healthy conversations in which recovering addicts and their families can share ideas, appreciation and resources for help and support. Many thanks to you and your contributors. Keep up the good work and we will keep reading!  Clio V.

To the editor: Kurt Brokaw’s column on the best films about alcoholism and addiction (Nov/Dec) was interesting and thought-provoking. One thought I had was that the films on his list that I’d seen (and a couple that only made Kurt’s honorable mention, such as “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Ironweed”) were so powerful when I saw them that one viewing – I realized, reading Kurt’s column – was enough for me. And that’s odd, because I’m enough of a film buff that I’ve screened some favorites too many times to mention: “The Third Man,” “Five Easy Pieces,” “Clockwork Orange,” “Midnight Run,” either of the first two “Godfather” movies, and so on.

But here’s the revelation provoked by Kurt’s column: that I was still drinking when I saw the films on his list that I’d seen, and that as powerful and disturbing as each one was (in my memory), none turned the light on in my own progressively soggy brain and triggered the idea that, hey, maybe there’s a lesson in what I’ve just seen about my own life and prospects. And, once I got sober by other means, I never wanted to see any of those movies (or any movies with booze as a theme) again.

Except that now, in blink-away flashes, I can see Ray Milland…Albert Finney…Lee Remick in her hazy sinking beauty, Jack Lemmon… (See Kurt’s review in this issue, pg 17.)

Maybe they were teachers anyway, and it just took Kurt’s column to make that point. Mike

To the editor: I feel compelled to respond to Nancy O’Hara’s invitation to discuss the legalization of Marijuana (Nov/Dec).

I am a 46-year-old white male who works in a hospital (and has done so for the past 28 years), and am a tax-paying, law-abiding citizen. I was a habitual marijuana smoker from my early teens until the age of 31, at which time I quit “cold turkey.”

I quit because I felt that marijuana made me a-motivational, paranoid, and less sociable.

In addition, I knew that smoking (even though it wasn’t tobacco) wasn’t good for my health… I can honestly say that if marijuana became legal I would not start smoking it again.

That being said, I find it quite hypocritical for society to sanction the consumption of alcohol (which is just as much of a DRUG as marijuana) as well as the consumption of tobacco. The number of people who lose their lives every year to these two substances is incalculable. A large percentage of all traffic fatalities can (now and in the past) be attributed to drunk driving, and a large percentage of cancer deaths (now and in the past) can be attributed to cigarette smoking.

Why is it that these two substances are legal, and yet marijuana is illegal? It’s as if the lawmakers put all the drugs known to mankind into a hat, and they decided that they were going to pull only two of them out and make only those two legal… There is no logic to this whatsoever.

If the health of our citizenry is the primary factor in determining what should or should not be legal, an argument could be made that we should ILLEGALIZE alcohol and tobacco.

Some people would say we tried that (Prohibition) and it didn’t work… It promoted organized crime during the 1930s. What do you think is happening now…? Just look at the violence in Mexico…

I think it is natural for human beings to want to alter their state of consciousness. Why is it that children will spin around for a while and then fall to the ground to savor the trippy experience that results? One could argue that marijuana use would be much less harmful to the individual and to society than the use of alcohol and tobacco.

There are some people who don’t like the effects of alcohol, and would prefer to use marijuana to alter their state of consciousness. What right does our government have to decide that one drug is better than another, when the statistics clearly contradict this? Maybe the alcohol industry and the tobacco industry have something to do with what the United States government will and will not do. I’m sure those industries are lobbying against the legalization of marijuana. Think about it.

Perhaps it’s time that we legalized marijuana, treated its use as a health issue, educated society about the dangers of its use, and made the penalties for driving under the influence and selling it to minors extremely severe.

Thank you for letting me voice my opinion. Anon.