Many responsible physicians believe, on sound medical evidence, that
cannabis is useful in the prevention of blindness from glaucoma and to
suppress the nausea incident to chemotherapy. But if they say so, they'll
be sending a dangerous message to kids or so say our politicians.

This politically and journalistically generated hysteria obscures the few
solid facts we have about drugs and addiction. The paramount fact is that,
socially, the costliest problem drugs are nicotine and alcohol. Yet our
politicians are soft on tobacco and alcohol while spending billions of
dollars of our tax money yearly arresting American citizens for using
marijuana. Most of them seem to doubt that nicotine and alcohol are
addictive, and welcome huge campaign contributions from these industries.

The only proven counter strategy, as in the surgeon generals' long and
persistent campaigns against cigarettes, is truthful patient education and
medical treatment. Law enforcement tactics as a solution for social
problems have proven time and again to be a failure. The 18th Amendment era
can hardly be ignored as an example of the social cost of Prohibition,
which gave America bootlegging, mobsterism and mass civil disobedience in
addition to the eternal problem of alcohol abuse.

Our politicians merely refuse, as do many, to see the clear parallel
between that "experiment noble in purpose" and the "war on drugs" that we
are losing. Like Prohibition it also is a war against human folly and, as
such, is lost from the start.

Tom Hawkins
Coulee Dam, WA