WAR ON DRUGS REACHES A NEW HIGH IN FUTILITY

Achtung! Not content with harassing sick California medicinal marijuana
patients, the new Fuhrer of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Asa
(Adolf) Hutchinson, has just snuck past Congress and the American people a
ruling that makes anyone who possesses or ingests hemp seed oil (no matter
how infinitesimal the trace amount of THC, marijuana's psychoactive
ingredient) a felon subject to up to one year in the pokey, and even more
prison time for selling or distributing the oil. In short, these are the
same penalties dished out to someone caught with an intoxicating marijuana
joint.

This was done at the behest of the multibillion-dollar drug-testing
industry, which didn't want anyone to be able to claim that a positive
urine test for marijuana was due to hemp oil they had eaten or applied to
the skin as a cosmetic cream. Never mind that hemp oil is nutritionally a
wonderfully rich source of essential fatty and amino acids and protein.

So, you are hereby warned that as of Feb. 5, 2002, hemp oil bears the same
penalty as a joint. You can verify this in the Federal Register of Oct. 9,
2001.

Of course, to enforce this ridiculous (but no less real) rule, we might
have to transfer FBI or National Guard personnel from their pursuit of
terrorists, but then, let's keep our priorities straight.

This has got to be a new high (forgive the pun) of absurdity in the
wasteful, futile drug war.

David L. Edwards

Olympia