LEBANESE FARMERS AGAIN GROW CANNABIS

"Weed Again Crop of Choice Among Lebanese Farmers" (July 19) really riled
me up. It tells how farmer Abu Mohammed can't support his family in any way
except to grow marijuana to make the deadly drug hashish.

My rage stems from the fact that I had to watch my daughter spend 25
horrible years as a drug addict, then die on my living room couch as a
result. I can't condone anyone growing that stuff in order to feed his
family. I can only hope that his children start as soon as possible to chew
on the stuff as it grows in his fields, feel the high, get addicted to it
and eventually die young after hellish lives as drug addicts. Then maybe
Mohammed will understand what he's doing to millions of families around the
world.

Carol Roman

Big Bear City

Your article notes that "cannabis has been grown in the Bekaa for
centuries, dating back to the days of the Ottoman Empire. The crop became
an integral part of the economy and the culture." Now, in the absence of
meaningful agricultural relief and with the failure of replacement crops,
Bekaa farmers are using their common sense, once again growing this
beneficent plant for the manufacture of some of the best hashish in the world.

This economy should be encouraged, and anti-cannabis crusades should be
seen for what they are: narrow-minded attempts to stop a benign,
centuries-old economy that serves an extremely enjoyable end. Let us
finally admit what the U.S. government has perversely denied since [the
late head of the federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, from 1930
to 1962, Harry J.] Anslinger--smoking (and eating) cannabis is good, clean,
relatively harmless fun, and cannabis production can be a boon to
struggling economies worldwide.

David Schwankle

Riverside