A MORE DANGEROUS DRUG

The Post's news story about the ban on farmers growing hemp -- a
useful product that has no psychoactive properties -- illustrates how
irrational U.S. drug policy has become ["Farmers Ask Federal Court to
Dissociate Hemp and Pot," Nov. 12]. But I was also struck by the fact
that the same section of The Post had more than two full pages of ads
for alcohol -- a drug far more dangerous than marijuana. For example,
in March the Lancet, the British medical journal, ranked alcohol as
the fifth most dangerous recreational drug out of 20 cited, while
marijuana was ranked only 11th (and tobacco, incidentally, ranked ninth).

Richard F. Kennedy

Lorton