Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jul 2002
Source: Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan (SD)
Copyright: 2000 Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan
Contact:  http://www.yankton.net
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1046
Author: Robert Sharpe
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm (Hemp)

DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A., Washington

The arguments against industrial hemp are utter nonsense (Press & Dakotan, 
June 26). The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that deny 
farmers the right to grow industrial hemp.

Apparently government bureaucrats in Washington can't tell the difference 
between a tall hemp stalk and a short marijuana bush. Prior to the passage 
of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, few Americans had heard of marijuana, 
despite widespread cultivation of its non- intoxicating cousin, industrial 
hemp.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration 
during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical 
Association. White Americans did not even begin to smoke marijuana until a 
soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness 
propaganda.

Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been 
counterproductive at best. An estimated 38 percent of Americans have now 
smoked pot. The reefer madness myths have long been discredited, forcing 
the drug war gravy train to spend millions of tax dollars on politicized 
research, trying to find harm in a relatively harmless plant. Meanwhile, 
research that might demonstrate the medical efficacy of marijuana is 
consistently blocked.

The direct experience of millions of Americans contradicts the 
sensationalistic myths used to justify marijuana prohibition. Illegal drug 
use is the only public health issue wherein key stakeholders are not only 
ignored, but actively persecuted and incarcerated. In terms of medical 
marijuana, those stakeholders happen to be cancer and AIDS patients. Reefer 
madness is a poor excuse for incarcerating Americans who prefer marijuana 
to martinis. There is no excuse for denying farmers the right to grow 
industrial hemp.
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MAP posted-by: Beth