Pubdate: Tue, 27 May 1997
Source: Skagit Valley Herald (WA)
Author: Allison Bigelow

Hemp and Marijuana: Stupid is ...

The following is in response to the recent letter to the editor about
hemp and marijuana titled "Only stupid people need it" (May 16).

Stupid is spending $750,000,000 a year on the D.A.R.E. program when we
know that it doesn't work.... The Research Triangle Institute of Durham,
N.C., conducted a statistical analysis of all D.A.R.E.
research ... -- eight studies involving 9,500 children -- and says
D.A.R.E. has "a limited to essentially nonexistent effect" on drug use.

Stupid is spending $1.8 billion this year on keeping drugs from crossing
our borders when we still have waiting lists for addicts who cannot
afford treatment. Studies show that treatment is more cost-effective
than source eradication. Our metaphorical War on Drugs is a literal war
in some countries ... Innocent men, women and children are losing their
lives and/or homes in this real war on people.

Stupid is continuing to pollute the planet when there is a viable
alternative such as hemp. ... The chief USDA official in charge of
reversing the greenhouse effect admitted that hemp probably could
restore the earth's balances. ... (but) that we could not use hemp "not
even to save the world" because it "is marijuana and that's illegal."

Stupid is sending Will Foster, a married father of two who supported his
family as a computer programmer, to jail for 93 years for growing a
5-by-5 room of marijuana that he used to control the
pain and swelling of his rheumatoid arthritis. Oklahoma now will have to
pay $30,000 a year to house him. The children are fatherless, and
virtually motherless since Mom now has two jobs to try to support
her family. Meanwhile we let out 800 thieves, murderers, and rapists in
Florida alone this March to make room for mandatory minimum drug
offenders.

Ignorant is the name I have for people that don't understand that
prohibition is a smoke screen for corporate greed to continue to hold an
exclusive right to say what pharmaceuticals and pleasure drugs,
such as alcohol and tobacco, we use...

Hemp is most frequently lied
about. It is not addictive and is not a gateway drug. ... How our
government can still quote from studies that have been called a "hoax"
by peer review of other doctors, I don't know...

Allison
Bigelow

Burlington