HEMP BAN UNREASONABLE

I am an ardent supporter of the Hemp 99 initiative. As a Republican voter, I
am opposed to the federal government intimidating doctors from prescribing
medical marijuana to patients with life-threatening ailments and maladies.
The prohibition of hemp is against the free market philosophy of the
Republican Party. Hemp can be used for over 10,000 products, however it is
presently banned as a raw product. If legal, it would increase efficiency,
competition and consumer choice. It's intoxicating cousin, marijuana, would
hopefully replace inhalants and perhaps even alcohol because it is far less
harmful.

The amount of money that is spent for prosecuting nonviolent marijuana
offenders would be better appropriated toward more violent acts of crime
such as rape, murder, robbery and child molesting. Hard-working, taxpaying
citizens should not have to be dragged through the court system for smoking
a plant that was given to us by God.

- - James J. Powell, Anchorage