Pubdate: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 Source: Northwest Florida Daily News (FL) Copyright: 2002 Northwest Florida Daily News Contact: http://www.nwfdailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/313 Author: Dennis Woltz MARIJUANA REALITY "Marijuana myths" (letter, March 8) hit one of the nails square on the head. More reality regarding the American cannabis situation is as follows: Countless millions of Americans buy, sell and/or smoke marijuana on a regular basis. Marijuana smokers come from all segments of this society. Marijuana smokers are homeless people, construction workers, K-12 teachers, civil engineers, scientists, physicians, surgeons, attorneys, mental health professionals and law enforcement at all levels, to name just a few. The U.S. government's domestic propaganda machine, the American Ad Council, paints an intentionally inaccurate picture of marijuana users. Billions of dollars are injected into the retail side of this country's economy. Black-market marijuana profits make car payments and mortgage payments. Without cannabis profits, the economy would suffer. Lawmakers are well aware of this. The greedy pharmaceutical mafia lobbies hard to make sure that marijuana is never legalized for medical uses, even though they can't provide anything that comes close to marijuana's therapeutic value in the treatment of several physical and neurological disorders. If marijuana were legalized, the bottom would fall out within six months. Billions of dollars would go unrealized and marijuana would return to its original, God-given status as just a weed. The entire scene is all about the most addictive drug of all - the almighty dollar. DENNIS WOLTZ Mary Esther - --- MAP posted-by: S Heath(DPF of Florida)