HEMP INITIATIVE WILL MOBILIZE THE CRITICS

Regarding South Dakota resident Bob Newland's push for medical marijuana
and hemp ballot initiatives on the 2002 ballot (Press & Dakotan, March 12),
the history of hemp's change from cash crop to dreaded symbol of the
counterculture bears repeating. Prior to the passage of the Marijuana Tax
Act of 1937 and subsequent reefer madness campaign, few Americans had heard
of marijuana, despite widespread cultivation of its non-intoxicating
cousin, industrial hemp. Recreational marijuana use was limited to Mexican
migrants.

Historians argue that the first marijuana laws were a racist reaction to
Mexican laborers taking jobs from whites during the Great Depression.

Legislation was passed in large part due to newspaper magnate William
Randolph Hearst's sensationalist yellow journalism. Incredibly violent acts
were allegedly committed by minorities under marijuana's influence.

The blatant lies used to justify marijuana prohibition lend credence to the
theory that marijuana laws were originally intended as a means of
disenfranchising minorities. Marijuana prohibition continues to be part of
a larger culture war. These days hemp represents the counterculture of the
1960s to Americans who would like to turn the clock back to the 1950s.

This misguided culture war does far more harm than marijuana.

As the most popular illicit drug in America, marijuana provides the black
market contacts that introduce users to hard drugs like heroin.

This "gateway" is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy.

Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol, it makes no
sense to perpetuate drug policies that finance organized crime, facilitate
the use of hard drugs, and deprive American farmers of a potentially
lucrative cash crop in the form of industrial hemp. As for medical
marijuana, the plant has been used medicinally for thousands of years. In
1999 a government commissioned Institute of Medicine report concluded that
there are limited circumstances in which smoking marijuana for medical uses
is recommended. Marijuana is one of the most studied plants around.

Nonetheless, entrenched interests riding the drug war gravy train continue
to claim further research is needed.

Should Newland succeed in getting medical marijuana on the 2002 ballot,
drug war profiteers will take their misinformation campaign directly to
South Dakotans.

Robert Sharpe, Washington, Program Officer The Lindesmith Center-Drug
Policy Foundation