Pubdate: Thu, 14 Sep 2000
Source: Anchorage Daily News (AK)
Copyright: 2000 The Anchorage Daily News
Contact:  http://www.adn.com/
Author: James Garhart

SEND MESSAGE ON POT

I know them, you know them, we all know them. We know them as our coworkers,
our neighbors, our friends, our families, and our loved ones. They include
people we currently trust, people we admire, people we consider regular,
decent folks.

One day it is revealed that one of these people enjoys marijuana. That
person is now transformed into someone to be taken from their job, their
neighbors, their family, their loved ones, their freedom, and incarcerated,
at our expense of course. The prisons are so overflowing with them that
people convicted of serious crimes against others are often released early
to make more and more room for pot smokers. This makes no sense.

Farmers in countries such as Canada, Great Britain, China, and numerous
others can legally grow commercial/industrial hemp. Various products are
then manufactured from the foreign-grown hemp and legally exported
worldwide, including to the United States. Our farmers are excluded from
competing in this market.

When Proposition 5 passes it will be clear, even to the Alaska Legislature,
that we, the people, demand the state government stop pursuing, prosecuting,
persecuting, imprisoning, and thus devastating the lives of those that
differ from us only in that they enjoy marijuana.

Be sure to be registered and then vote "yes" on Proposition 5 this Nov. 7.

- -- "Lazy Mountain Jim" James Garhart, Wasilla
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