Editor:

While I think Rick Reimer has done an excellent job expressing his opinion about the present status of marijuana, I would like to address how we got here in the first place.

Cannabis sativa is on record as being the oldest cultivated plant in human history, mostly for its fibre for cloth, sails and rope. Its seed head was harvested for its great food content, both for humans and for livestock, and for its heavy oil content.

Pre-1930, it had taken hard labor to extract 50 per cent of the usable fibre. After 1935, industrialization created machines that enabled 95 per cent of the hemp fibers to be extracted for industrial uses.

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