Note: The Advertiser received nearly 200 responses from readers to its
series on marijuana eradication efforts. The series is posted at:

Part One: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n444.a01.html

Part Two: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n442.a05.html

Part Three: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n447.a06.html

Part Four: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n453/a07.html

For the last six years, I've been selling hemp clothing, fabric and
cosmetics products. On behalf of my company, myself and the Hawaiian Hemp
Council, we look forward to the end of cannabis prohibition and we're
working, on a daily basis, to continue to restructure laws governing
cannabis use.

Kris Johnson, president, Hawaiian Hemp Council

We sure do waste lots of money on eradicating, that could be better spent
in the schools system and elsewhere. Only 10 percent of all marijuana is
actually being eradicated 90 percent of the people out there are still
getting away with it anyway. ... Marijuana's not hurting anybody. Aloha.

Gregory Young, 39, Kahaluu

I think it's stupid. You should just legalize it already and get all the
problems over with.

Kimo Sarrish, 17, student

If God made it when he made everything else how can it be bad? Our laws in
the United States against marijuana are only a couple of hundred of years
old. Everywhere else in the world, it's more readily acceptable.

Carloruso Campanelli, travel industry employee, Kaneohe

I think the war that we've declared on marijuana is an unwinnable war, and
I think we should have learned our lesson from Vietnam on that issue. It's
a waste of resources and money. It will do nothing to solve the problem.
And, all it's gonna do it make a bad situation worse. I think in this war a
truce should be declared on the war.

Mary Lee Van Zeen, registered nurse, Moiliili

No, I think marijuana should be decriminalized and the money spent on
treating addictions and eradicating harder and more harmful and violent
drugs like ice.

Harmony Bendosino, 46, massage therapist, Makakilo

It's a matter of people's right to the pursuit of happiness; leave them
alone, let them live, let them pursue happiness. Leave the government out
of our business.

Mark Lawrence, photographer, Makiki

It's a big joke. Whenever there's a demand, there's going to be a supply.
All we can do is educate the youth.

Keith Pear, 27, Puunui

Eradicating marijuana 24 years and we're still working on it. What are we
going to do? Is it war on citizens or war on a plant?

Paul Aiwohi, 21, Makiki

I have AIDS and need marijuana for my comfort.

Michelle Marvin, Punchbowl

The first casualty of the war on drugs has been the Bill of Rights. The
second has been the law enforcement community, now itself exhibiting a
harmful dependence on federal grants and asset forfeiture money. There is
no evidence that the war is being won. While some complain that pot-heads
are not productive members of society, that itself is not a crime. We don't
arrest people for being lazy. We don't even arrest ice-cream vendors who
sell fat-laced products to people who have heart conditions. We should
therefore be consistent and put all that war on drugs money into education
and rehabilitation instead of into helicopters and paramilitary incursions
into our civil life. ... Legalize marijuana so we can put the illicit,
potentially armed and dangerous growers out of business and so we can
regulate and tax cannabis in proportion to its social costs, as we
currently do tobacco products and alcohol. By legalizing and taxing, we can
not only keep better statistics on use and abuse, but pay for the abuse
costs through earmarked sin taxes. Drugs which promote violent behavior
should remain illegal.

Khalil J. Spencer, associate specialist, University of Hawaii department of
geology and geophysics

Legalizing puts the growers and criminals out of business. The state can
profit from a legal crop.

Alex Westover, Virginia

Dan Nakaso's front page story bearing the banner 'War on marijuana bitter,
costly, endless' was missing its last word 'senseless.' The U.S. war on
drugs is a pretty dismal farce and a real waste of tax dollars. Combine
that with a broken justice system, and you get exactly the morass that we
have in America today. Thanks for putting this issue on the burner.

Ray Heath, Pearl City

I am 38. I have smoked pakalolo most of my life (since 14). I was an A-B
student and I am a college graduate running a major department in a large
company, earning good money and raising a fine son. I own a home and am
saving for my son's college education. And all this despite the fact that
I've been 'stoned' most of my life and choose to spend about $200 a month
on pot. To me, pakalolo is not an escapist drug. It's a way to relax.

Julie Thompson

The war that we've declared on marijuana is an unwinnable war and I think
we should have learned our lesson from Vietnam on that issue. It's a waste
of resources and money. It will do nothing to solve the problem. And, all
it's gonna do is make a bad situation worse. I think in this war a truce
should be declared on the war.

Mary Lee Van Zeen, registered nurse, Moiliili

I am a pot smoker as are many of my friends. The only thing the eradication
program has accomplished is to drive the pot prices sky high. But it is
still readily available. They will never stop it. People are going to smoke
and they'll always be able to get it. I favor decriminalization and
channeling the money into education and rehabilitation for people.

Chad Riley, 32, self-employed, Kapahulu

I saw helicopters flying very low over the trees and it's very, very
disturbing to endangered birds.

Louise Thomas, Volcano

This is absolutely ridiculous that this state funds such a thing as the
eradication of marijuana. The most I've ever seen anyone attack, coming
down off of marijuana, is a bowl of ice cream or bag of cookies. And,
coming down off of ice or crack cocaine which is easily available on Oahu
you will kill somebody to get some more. So, you know, there's definitely a
greater of two evils there. And, I think they need to spend more money on
prevention and treatment rather than storm-trooping people's houses like
Nazis did to Polish people of Poland. I mean, how long are we going to let
this go on? There are a lot of cases where these guys have gone
storm-trooping into people's houses only to find out it's some old lady. I
don't see how they can justify violating people's civil rights in a war
that is not working."

Ty Hamilton, 33

This week's articles on marijuana eradication just show me what happens
when the majority of people (especially those in power) don't learn from
history. The situation with marijuana eradication today is similar to the
alcohol prohibition in the 1920s. When alcohol was banned, there was
massive violence between beer cartels (Al Capone was the most famous
alcohol lord) and people never stopped drinking. That is because no
government law can stop addiction.

Pablo Cruz Wegesend, University of Hawaii student, 19

I don't condone it except for medicinal purposes with a doctor's
recommendation. I think it's a waste of money to eradicate it when our
island has more severe problems with crack cocaine, PCP, ice, heroin, drugs
that make you truly psychotic and dangerous.

Jane Hall, 40, registered nurse, Waikiki

They will never win the war against marijuana since we can all grow it in
our homes, in our yards. We have grown it for a friend of ours who had
cancer and was nauseated all the time from the chemotherapy. He did
eventually die, but it really did help him. I know a lot of things now are
grown hydroponically, so that should give us a more secret way to grow it.
So it's a total waste of taxpayers' money. I know it's federal money, but
it's a waste.

Cheryl Lathan, Lanikai

(I'm) struck by the similarity between the Vietnamese morass we were in and
the drug war. When Clark Clifford took over as the secretary of defense, he
asked the military what was their goal, and how did they expect to win the
war in Vietnam? What they told him dismayed him a lot, because they said
they really didn't have a plan other than just to hold on and keep fighting
the fight and see what would happen. I believe this is the same thing that
the drug war is doing, and I think that it's going to come to the same end.

Richard Chan, Kalihi

Twenty-what years? Come on. It's getting old. Why wage this war that is
being lost? Is this one of those government job security things? Put those
police officers into other areas.

Jose Avila, Maui

Any country that declares war on its own citizens does not deserve to
stand. These police have no respect for our Constitution or the people they
are supposed to be serving.

Dave Gonsalez, Manoa

Our war on this drug is on par with Prohibition. Didn't reduce use
whatsoever, but just raised the price and made money for 'criminals.'"

The Rev. Gene Bridges

It is perfectly useless to continue to spend huge sums pursuing small
growers while inconveniencing and harassing local residents. Surveillance
to keep large growers out of business should perhaps continue as it seems
to have decreased the level of violence which existed previously. ... The
best solution would be for marijuana to be made legal and regulated like
other addictive and unhealthy substances (tobacco and alcohol come to
mind). It would be better for the state to get its share of revenue from
the sale of pot rather than to continue with the present underground economy.

Adrienne S. Dey, Hilo

I am a strong supporter of the legalization of marijuana. I myself used to
smoke it but have quit for several years now. If regulated and even taxed
it would be viable to legalize it. ... I do believe someday it will be
legal to posses a small quantity of marijuana for one's own use.

Mark Williams

I don't even smoke pot and they hassle me and everyone around here. If you
ever went to a council meeting when they discuss pot, you'd hear some
horror stories about those helicopter commandos. ... In 1998 there was 4.5
million dollars in theft on the Big Island, locals ripping things off,
mainly to be able to afford pot. The rise in theft, costing residents
millions, is directly proportionate to the stepping up of helicopter
activity. The more the cops rip off people's plants, the higher the cost of
pot and the more theft this causes.

Dennis Gregory, Editor of the Puna Press

Simply decriminalize all statutes that focus on victimless crimes such as
possession of small amounts of pakalolo. Period. Doing this would free-up
an awful lot of well-trained, dedicated police and security officers to go
after the rapists, muggers, murderers and other sociopaths in our midst
instead of wasting their time pulling up harmless weeds.

Anson Chong, adjunct lecturer in economics & political science, Hawaii
Community College

The fact that marijuana is illegal is the reason for the associated crime.
If marijuana were decriminalized, what would be the rationale for one
grower to assault another grower, or a hiker? ... It would be like mangos
or tomatoes; how often do people sneak into others' yards to steal those?
... If we take the crime out of marijuana, the associated crimes go away.

Robin Hall

OK, pot is bad and is a gateway drug. I think we all know that this is a
huge load of crap. If there really is such a thing as a gateway drug, then
let's be real and acknowledge that that prize would go to alcohol and
cigarettes.

Heather Cushnie

As a 59 year old businessman with a thriving business and a career of
successful employment back to my teens, I enjoyed an occasional joint back
in the '60s and '70s & never at any time did it threaten addiction nor
tempt me toward harder drugs. In fact, quite the opposite, the grass
available was so good, much of it home grown by friends, that there was no
temptation to try anything else.

Doug Arnott, Arnott's Lodge & Hiking Adventures, Big Island

I remember as a sixth-grader in an Oahu public elementary school, pot was
available and experimented with, but I would have to say the vast majority
of my classmates have gone on to healthy, drug-free lives (myself
included). The question the state should be asking itself is, should they
focus their efforts on the dangerous hard drugs, ice, cocaine and heroin
while letting the very benign drug marijuana run its course.

Eric Tema

The war on Cannabis is creating the problems it claims to be solving.
Violent crime, abuse of hard drugs, and experimentation with 'marijuana' by
teens are all made worse by prohibition, creating a global black market in
a God-given herb that's impossible to control.

Paul von Hartmann, Project P.E.A.C.E. (Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious
Economics )

Greed runs the drug war. Greed for money. The prisons have turned in to a
multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry. The drug-testing industry is
approaching a billion dollars a year. The budgets for law enforcement,
Customs, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, and the DEA, all in the billions per
year. They all lobby Congress for more money, saying they are gaining in
the drug war. But the only thing that gets accomplished is taking away our
personal freedoms guaranteed us in the Constitution.

Larry Seguin, Lisbon, N.Y.

I feel that if marijuana is used for medical use only should be approved. I
saw my husband & die of cancer. If this will ease the pain in the last
stages of there cancer to help keep them comfortable. My approval is for
this purpose.

Edith Kahele

If we were to apply the same tax we put on booze or tobacco (pick one) to
marijuana, how much revenue could we generate? As legitimate business
people, the growers and sellers would have to declare their incomes (more
tax dollars). All of this is, of course, moot as long as there are federal
laws against cannabis possession.

Brian D. Bott

The War on Drugs has been more deleterious to both our society and to its
individuals than misuse of every illegal drug combined. The U.S. government
shouldn't have contrived to make what is essentially a public health and
civil liberty issue into a civil war. Drug treatment is more effective and
far, far less expensive.

Robert Grayson, registered nurse, Aiea

For 10 years I have been under constant surveillance some time every three
weeks by helicopters , with people pointing guns at me. Just because I have
a coffee farm in Kona. ... Yes, it is true, we have created a monster, a
police state where you are always quilty. if you own a farm, always under
the gun.

Robert H. Faust, Ph.D. Agroecologist, Faust Bio-Agricultural Services,
Inc., Honaunau

"I know pot growers who are delighted that marijuana is illegal because it
creates enormous profits. I know casual pot users who are productive,
hardworking citizens. Our nation is spending billions of dollars and
locking up hundreds of thousands of citizens to prosecute a victimless
crime. ... I'm a former pot user and the son of a recovering alcohol and
tobacco abuser. I find it ironic that our government allows us to buy
dangerous and even deadly drugs like alcohol and cigarettes at the grocery
store, but will throw us in prison if they catch us smoking a joint.

Jim Henshaw, Kailua