Pubdate: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 Date: 08/18/1999 Source: Weekly Planet (FL) Author: Myron Von Hollingsworth Note: Title by MAP editor Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n794/a04.html Right on, Andrea Brunais. Thanks also to the Weekly Planet for printing such a poignant, well written piece. It would seem that a great deal of money is being spent and a huge risk is being taken in order to eradicate a plant that has no lethal dose and whose pharmacological effects have never caused a single death in over 5,000 years. Maybe the politicians are required to adhere to the party line of prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison industrial complex, the 'drug testing industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the politician's themselves et al. can't live without the budget justification, not to mention the invisible profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture benefits that prohibition affords them. The drug war also promotes, justifies and perpetuates racist enforcement policies and is diminishing many freedoms and liberties that are supposed to be guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Myron Von Hollingsworth, Fort Worth, Texas