FOUNDING FATHERS HAD REAL DOPE ON HEMP

News reports about George W. Bush's inauguration note that the new
president swore his oath of office on the same Bible George Washington used.

If Washington used the Bible, it undoubtedly is printed on hemp paper. Hemp
paper was the norm back in Washington's day, and no other paper would last
more than 200 years. It seems very ironic that Bush--taking the reins of
power of a federal government with an irrational obsession with suppressing
every use of this beneficial herb, including paper, medicine, food, fuel
and clothing--used a hemp-paper Bible to take his oath.

Even more ironic is that under today's laws, Washington, who cultivated
hemp on his estate at Mount Vernon, would have faced a mandatory minimum
sentence of 10 years to life for his hemp farming.

With bureaucrats at the Drug Enforcement Administration now poised to
outlaw many hemp products by administrative order, and the Justice
Department fighting medical marijuana all the way to the Supreme Court, it
is clear that the federal war on hemp in reality is a war on the American
people.

In his final months in office, President Bill Clinton acknowledged that use
of marijuana should be decriminalized. Although it seems very unlikely that
the Bush administration will come to its senses about marijuana
prohibition, we can only hope that Bush will keep his campaign promise to
allow states to set their own policies on marijuana and hemp.

Gary Storck, Madison, Wis.