Pubdate: Mon, 04 Oct 1999
Date: 10/04/1999
Source: Prince George's Journal (MD)
Author: Myron Von Hollingsworth
Note: It is always nice to see MAP news readers and LTE writers succeed so
well at what we do. The related article is at:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n1060.a02.html

Cannabis has no lethal dose and its pharmacological effects have never
caused a single death in more than 5,000 years of recorded history.

The (unseen) driving force against medical (or unrestricted adult)
legalization of cannabis is the fact that cannabis can't be patented.
This precludes the need for big business to be involved and that fact
makes cannabis commercially unattractive, pharmaceutically speaking.
It seems that if it can't be profitized successfully the government
can't justify legalization even for the sick and dying.

Unfortunately, a change in current policy would necessitate that the
alternative reap more profits (seen and unseen) than our present
policy does.

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 politicians 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