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Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
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No single pill
Re Marketing The Myth Of Serotonin (Life & Arts – May 18):
Adriana Barton writes that "Treating depression may never be as simple as prescribing … No single pill can cure this ill." Indeed. What's missing is psychological treatment.
The Canadian Psychological Association report The Efficacy And Effectiveness Of Psychological Treatments explains how numerous studies over three decades have shown that psychological treatments are as effective as medication in treating depression and more effective than medication in follow-up, after treatment, and in preventing relapse.
There is a large body of research showing that psychological treatments alone, or in combination with medication, can effectively treat depression. And yet psychological treatment goes uncovered by provincial health plans.
Dr. Bruce Hutchison, C.Psych, Ottawa
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Reefer madness
Margaret Wente is right about marijuana prohibition being a bust in Canada (In The Weeds – Focus, May 16). Now that neighbouring U.S. states have legalized marijuana, Ottawa can no longer claim that Canada must uphold prohibition in order to maintain good diplomatic relations. Consider the U.S. experience: almost double the lifetime rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana has been legally available for decades. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure.
On the other hand, if the goal is to subsidize violent drug cartels and open a gateway to the hard drugs they sell, marijuana prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. The criminalization of citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. It's time to stop the pointless arrests and tax legal marijuana instead.
Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington
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Give me shelter
We can't write about tax increases and the resultant tax avoidance without mentioning the possibility of a substantial minimum tax rate (Taxing The Rich Will Not Pay Off For Trudeau – May 18). Tax shelters are only as effective as the broad loopholes that enable them.
Brian Lowry, Fredericton
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Tear it down?
Kudos to Alex Bozikovic for the best analysis to date of the issues facing Toronto's council in making a decision on the Gardiner East (Tear It Down – Globe T.O., May 16). This decision will either transform or fossilize Toronto's relationship to its waterfront for the next 100 years.
Surely the decision should be informed by looking to Toronto's future growth and not by a misguided fixation on current levels of congestion, which cannot be reduced in the short run by either of these two options. The truth is that the Gardiner is at capacity and has been for decades. It's transit, not two or three minutes saved or lost on a Gardiner East run, that will make a tangible contribution to improving mobility for everyone.
Cynthia Wilkey, co-chair, West Don Lands Committee, Toronto
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Mr. Bozokovic minimizes the inconvenience to "a few rush-hour drivers by a few minutes." Perhaps he walks or rides a bike to work. Congestion in our metropolis consumes millions of hours for hundreds of thousands of commuters, service workers, delivery people and transit workers. Millions of litres of fuel are burned idling in traffic congestion. This burning of hydrocarbons is the main producer of greenhouse gases.
Many people in his position will start owning cars, commuting a few kilometres and cutting grass as soon as they can afford to, as soon as they get to the procreating stage of their lives.
David Cramer, Toronto
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A bad week
Last week's news didn't show the Harper government in a good light. Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre is using public money to make partisan "vanity videos" (Poilievre Video Spurs Fresh Criticism – May 15), the Supreme Court of Canada threw out an absurd claim by the government about Omar Khadr (Judges Side With Khadr In Symbolic Ruling – May 15), and, most worrying of all, the government wants to retroactively amend legislation to protect the RCMP against criminal charges (Watchdog Calls Retroactive Shielding Of RCMP 'Perilous' – May 15).
As Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault, a brave woman, pointed out, that would set a precedent allowing a government to retroactively amend election laws to expunge its own cheating, at which point democracy in Canada would cease to exist.
James Duthie, Nanaimo, B.C.
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Not yet a tinfoil hat
Margaret Wente refers to Elizabeth May as "a little wacky" and cites as an example the Green Party Leader's concern that WiFi is "hazardous to your health" (Elizabeth May Lays An Egg – May 14).
Two days earlier, The Globe reported on worries about the potential for harm from wireless devices, including WiFi (Experts Urge Cautious Use As Wireless Harms Reassessed – Life & Arts, May 12). Concerns about WiFi exposure are shared by many more than just Ms. May, including physicians, epidemiologists and environmental health experts.
Susan Collins, London, Ont.
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Here's a (wing)tip
Re In His Shoes (Life & Arts – May 15): After having a look at John Allemang's classic Thomas Church one-piece leather Oxfords, I have a penny-pinching suggestion to further extend the life of of his beloved footwear: Buy a pair of cedar shoe trees to help them keep their shape. They cost less than having the shoes reheeled.
Ken Mark, Toronto
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Victoria – Victorian?
It is doubtful that Queen Victoria, a wife and mother of nine children, would have been all that shocked by Ontario's new sex-ed curriculum (editorial cartoon – May 18). Of the facts of life she was well aware.
Consider what she wrote concerning the plight of the young mother: "When I think of a merry, happy, free young girl – and look at the ailing, aching state a young wife generally is doomed to – which you can't deny is the penalty of marriage."
If that's not a plea for birth control, nothing is.
Keith McKee, London, Ont.
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Contrary to popular wisdom, Victoria enjoyed a healthy sex life, and when her voluminous diaries were released a number of years ago, her entries about "heavenly lovemaking" with consort Albert made news as it belied her supposed prudish beliefs. Victoria's view about the brouhaha about the new curriculum: She would not be amused.
Jayne Watson, Ottawa