IMPORTED HERB

Thank goodness for /EW/ letters. 'Tis about the only place to find
occasional mention of the War On (some) Drugs. Writer Robert Simms, in
his letter "Politics of Poppies" (11/15), makes noise about some of
the most glaring points in the perpetuity of failure that is the drug
war.

Besides the economic boost our drug war is providing to the Taliban
and others in the Middle East, here at home the story is the same but
different. Instead of funding the Taliban, we here in the U.S. fund
Asian cartels operating indoor pot farms and Latin American crime
organizations responsible for outdoor pot "farms" growing thousands
and tens of thousands of plants in single locations, ruining domestic
water sources and destroying habitat. Where once domestic herb came
from the toil of hard-working locals, now we have international
criminal syndicates reaping the profits.

The drug war is a boon, a goose laying golden eggs, for the world's
drug cartels (and its corporate counterpart, the for-profit
military-drugwar-industrial-prison-complex).

Here in Oregon -- where we have probably the nation's most successful
medical cannabis program -- "crime fighting" knucklehead Kevin Mannix
is seeking to dismantle the state's self-sufficient Oregon Medical
Marijuana Program (OMMP) and replace it with a policy that would have
the state paying for the synthetic cannabinoid pharmaceutical Marinol
for patients who want to continue using cannabis medicine. He wants to
replace a program (the OMMP) that put back almost one million dollars
into the state's coffers in 2005. How many medical programs put money
IN to a state's funds?

While those who oppose the war in Iraq hold large demonstrations and
get major airtime on national media, the drug war gets no or little
notice. Even though our drug policies affect every community in the
nation, seriously continue to erode the Constitution and have police
raiding homes in military assault team fashion (anyone remember 5th
and Adams?) the War On (some) Drugs remains the forgotten stepchild of
politics.

Allan Erickson, Eugene