TABOOS PROTECT DECEITFUL BELIEFS

Editor:

During the Middle Ages there was a weather event dubbed the Little
Ice Age. Many people died because of failing crops due to a much
colder climate. Potatoes could still be grown but people refused to
grow or eat them; they chose starvation instead. They did so because
church leaders including a pope declared potatoes the devil's food
because they grow beneath the ground.

Today, there exists a plant that can produce 1,000 gallons of
methanol alcohol fuel per acre, compared to 350 gallons of ethanol
produced from corn. Some 60 to 70 gallons of high grade lubricating
oil per acre can be produced; combine the alcohol and oil and you
have bio-diesel.

This level of production would certainly reduce our dependency on
big-money oil without raising food costs.

In addition to fuel, 20,000 often superior, lower cost products can
be derived from it such as cosmetics, textiles, and so on. In fact,
about 85 percent of the building materials needed to build and
furnish a house can be produced from this most useful plant.

Used as a medicine it's been proven to help the brain completely
regenerate brain cells damaged by such diseases as Alzheimer's, etc.
It's also proven to kill at least seven types of cancer cells. There
are several other medical uses that could be a great benefit to
human kind, as well.

So why are we not using this extremely beneficial plant to its
fullest extent?

Well it seems somewhere down the line someone declared cannabis,
hemp, better known by its nickname, marijuana, was indeed the devil's
weed because it can also provide pleasure to those who smoke it.

So rather than ending the absurd cannabis prohibition once and for
all, we instead choose to be saddled down with unnecessarily high
fuel and food prices, as well as super high medical costs. After all,
we need to protect ourselves from this devil weed no matter the
cost. In reality, it's been proven again and again that cannabis is
totally harmless to society and users alike.

Although we've invented all sorts of gadgets from that Little Ice Age
till the present, as a species we've regressed rather than
progressed. This is due to the indisputable fact that most people
refuse to learn from the mistakes of the past.

Self induced ignorance is voluntary slavery.

JOE DePAUL, Casper