Pubdate: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA) Copyright: 2013 Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact: http://www.newsreview.com/chico/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n000/a043.html Author: Joseph Robinson STOP THE HISTRIONICS Re "Blame the policy, not the plant" (Cover feature, by David Downs, Nov. 21): It is true that marijuana prohibition is the cause of all problems related to marijuana. It is not true that marijuana grows cause major ecological damage compared to other industries. So please stop all these ridiculous histrionics about damage caused by evil pot growers and/or evil pot prohibition until you have done something about the following problems. Coal-Google "mountaintop removal coal mining" and see what has been done to the Southern Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia and other states. Gas-Google "fracking" and see what is being done to the Northern Appalachian Mountains, particularly in Pennsylvania. Logging-Google Earth Map from Oregon south, far past Butte County. The western slope of the Sierra Nevada has been systematically raped with "clear-cut" patches. Farming-agribusiness in every state causes infinitely more harm to the environment with all make and manner of offenses (they spray poisons from planes, for one thing) than a few pissant pot gardens in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Joseph Robinson Chico Editor's note: The CN&R has a history of writing about those very things. For example, see "The future of the f-word," Cover feature, Sept. 19. We are also concerned about the environmental devastation that our reporters have seen firsthand while touring Butte County's foothills, where there are, in fact, many more than "a few pissant pot gardens." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom