Pubdate: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Copyright: 2008 Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: http://www.edmontonsun.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135 Author: Bruce Codere Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n1033/a08.html Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor, headline by newshawk. THE MOST USEFUL PLANT ON EARTH Jeremy Loome's column ("Forget facts, common sense or decency," Nov. 15) makes a forceful case for giving the old heave-ho to cannabis laws. There is no possible doubt, after exhaustive investigation, that cannabis is the most useful plant on Earth. Almost anything not made from glass or metal can be made from Cannabis. Food, fuel, fibre, medicine. The core reason cannabis is illegal goes back to when it was made illegal and by whom: wealthy American industrialists and their bankers who saw hemp as their main competition and engineered "Reefer Madness." The rest is ugly history. But prohibition is simply a means to an end, which is control. Alcohol prohibition and repeal were caused purely by economic forces. Morality and demonstrations were not factors, and that is easily demonstrable from the public record. Cannabis prohibition will end for the same reason. It has already begun. Bruce Codere (At least 2,700 years of pot, and they're still fighting it.) - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom