Pubdate: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 Source: Irish Examiner (Ireland) Copyright: Examiner Publications Ltd, 2001 Contact: http://www.examiner.ie/ Section: Letters Author: Myron Von Hollingsworth GREENER SIDE OF THE GRASS DEBATE THE IOM now confirms that the myths and lies that have supported cannabis prohibition are completely false. The worst thing they can find to say about it is that it is not harmless. Neither are hundreds of other substances that have been legal for 100 plus years. Wake up and smell the propaganda. You want cannabis out of the hands of minors? Legalise it and regulate it. Tax it like we do everything else. Maybe politicians and media are required to adhere to the party line of prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison and military industrial complex, the drug testing industry, the drug treatment industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the politicians themselves can't live without the budget justification, not to mention the invisible profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture benefits that prohibition affords them. The drug war promotes, justifies and perpetuates racist enforcement policies and is diminishing many freedoms and liberties that are supposed to be inalienable according to the constitution and Bill of Rights. Myron Von Hollingsworth, 6401, Malvey Avenue, Texas 76116, USA - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart