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.] - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens