Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jan 2012
Source: Lincoln Journal Star (NE)
Copyright: 2012 Lincoln Journal Star
Contact:  http://www.journalstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/561
Author: Wayne Whitmarsh
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n736/a03.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n741/a06.html

CANNABIS TRUTHS

Len Schropfer's letter to the editor (LJS, Dec. 26) was factual about 
the state process to legalize hemp/cannabis/marijuana (Proposition 
19). It touched on hemp uses, including as biofuel.

Susie Dugan's response (LJS, Dec. 29) made 14 nonfactual assertions 
about pot. Cannabis can be abused, but causes a decrease of 
aggression, not an increase, as alcohol does.

After significant time scrutinizing this plant's potentials and 
shortcomings, 16 states and the District of Columbia -- one-third of 
the U.S. population -- have approved medicinal cannabis by 
legislature or voter action. Legalizing, regulating, producing and 
taxing this plant makes sense.

Our youths aren't the problem. Prohibition is. Surveys in California 
at the time of passage of the 1996 medicinal approval law and eight 
years later found ninth-graders' use of cannabis/marijuana had 
decreased from 34.2 percent to 18.8 percent -- in spite of street 
pot's availability. Shouldn't PRIDE (Prevention Resource and 
Information on Drug Education) be for that?

Industrial hemp would be a huge boon to the Nebraska economy. The 
United States is the largest importer of hemp.

Opposition letters on this subject often incite rather than educate.

Wayne Whitmarsh,

Lincoln
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom