Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jun 2001
Source: NOW Magazine (Canada)
Copyright: 2001 NOW Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nowtoronto.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/282
Author: Myron Von Hollingsworth

IF POT COULD BE PATENTED

Cannabis has no lethal dose and its pharmacological effects have never 
caused a single death in over 5,000 years of recorded history.

The (unseen) driving force against medical (or unrestricted adult) 
legalization of cannabis is the fact that cannabis can't be patented. This 
precludes the need for big business to be involved, and that fact makes 
cannabis commercially unattractive to the pharmaceutical, tobacco and 
alcohol industries (lobbies). It seems that if it can't be successfully 
made profitable, the government can't justify legalization even for the 
sick and dying.

Furthermore, the war on cannabis drives the war on drugs. Without cannabis 
prohibition, the drug war would be reduced to a pillow fight. This is the 
politics and the economics of cannabis prohibition.

Myron Von Hollingsworth
Fort Worth, Texas
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