CANNABIS TYRANNY

Just yesterday, police, politicos and media outlets arrogantly
celebrated the destruction of another sizable marijuana farm here in
southern California. Then I read Marijuana Mood Swing (NOW, September
21-27), wherein NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre comments
that the development of cannabis-based medications is an "irony" that
may leave "the bid for legalization of just plain weed... in the
dust." These absurdities are depressing, and much less a matter of
irony than of tyranny and inhumanity. As Paul Terefenko's piece
reminds us, the disadvantages of cannabis prohibition on physical and
mental health are unacceptable.

Municipal time, place and manner ordinances should be the only
regulations regarding the peaceable consumption of cannabis.

Ivan Smason

Santa Monica,

California