Pubdate: Wed, 24 Dec 2008
Source: Charleston City Paper, The (SC)
Copyright: 2008 The Charleston City Paper
Contact:  http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2400
Author: Stan White
Referred: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n1144/a10.html

END PROHIBITION

Jack Hunter got a bull's-eye calling for credible drug law reform. 
("Just Say No ... More" by Jack Hunter, Dec. 17) At the very least 
that means re-legalizing cannabis (marijuana). The relatively safe, 
socially acceptable, God-given plant cannabis hasn't killed anyone in 
over 5,000 years of documented use, yet it is classified as a 
Schedule I substance along with heroin and LSD, while meth and coke 
are only Schedule II substances.

And there's part of the problem. The prohibitionist government 
propaganda insisting that cannabis is so bad has the effect of 
creating contempt toward the warnings about highly addictive and deadly drugs.

How many adults try cannabis and realize it's not nearly as harmful 
as taught in DARE-type government environments and think other 
substances must not be so bad either, only to become addicted to 
deadly substances? Another benefit from ending cannabis prohibition 
includes allowing free American farmers to grow hemp, like communist 
Chinese farmers do. Some sources indicate that if 10 percent of 
American farmland were used to grow hemp, the U.S. would not need to 
import any foreign petroleum.

A sane argument to continue prohibiting cannabis and hemp does not exist.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.
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