Pubdate: Sat, 13 Jan 2001
Source: Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: Allied Press Limited, 2001
Contact:  P.O. Box 181, 52-66 Lower Stuart Street, Dunedin, New Zealand
Website: http://www2.odt.co.nz
Author: J. Kearney
Notes: Headline supplied by newshawk; bracketed disclaimer by Otega Daily 
Times editor.

CANNABIS PROHIBITION COSTLY

DR IVAN HARPER (4.12.00) believes that the increase in cannabis use among 
youth is the result of a university-inspired conspiracy, and that those 
arguing for the legalisation of cannabis are morally inferior. While I may 
not yet be a "Dr", I did not discover any evidence to support either of 
these ideas while researching a school project on "the economic benefits of 
legalising cannabis". Instead, I found a great deal of information, all of 
it readily accessible at the Dunedin Public Library and on the Internet, to 
suggest that cannabis prohibition is very costly to society.

I also discovered that those responsible for the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act 
were seemingly devoid of morals as they used racial prejudice and 
propaganda to further their own business interests. By effectively 
eliminating its rival, the hemp industry, the petrochemical industry has 
been unopposed in polluting the world to dangerous levels of toxicity. Thus 
it seems hypocritical for prohibitionists like Dr Harper to harp on about 
the possible harm of cannabis to the user when considerably more damage is 
done to everyone's health from the use of petroleum products.

J. Kearney, Dalmore

[Abridged. - Ed.]
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