THINK POSITIVE

For six decades, the American government has fought with great vengeance the
evils of marijuana.

The anti-cannabis campaign - born, it's been observed, to give federal
agents something to do after the repeal of Prohibition - has banned not only
the recreational drug, pot, but also the non-intoxicating fiber, hemp, and
any significant research on medical uses for marijuana.

Among other things, the government's zero-tolerance stance on cannabis has
filled federal prisons with Grateful Dead fans guilty only of selling pot to
other Grateful Dead fans, and forced American industry to buy useful
hemp-based rope and fabric overseas.

Those are consequences the government has been willing to accept, however,
because of the institutional dogma that absolutely no good could come from
an intoxicating weed favored by jazz musicians, actors and other unsavory
types.

From the trenches, however, have come loads of anecdotal evidence that
cannabis can provide effective relief for the nausea that accompanies
chemotherapy, the intractable pain of cancer and the lack of appetite that
causes AIDS patients to waste away.

Those supplying the evidence are not hippie stoners who would use any excuse
to get high, but seriously ill people who've found no other relief for their
suffering.

Finally, the government body that is charged with fighting illegal drug use
has acknowledged the benefits of medical marijuana and encouraged its study.
But that will take a major change in direction for the folks in Washington,
who have so vilified the "evil weed" that they fear any liberalization of
the status of cannabis will open the floodgates of illegal pot-smoking
nationwide. That is unnecessary alarmism.

In fact, Cannabis produced for American industry may be just the cash crop
the South needs to replace that other vilified weed, tobacco. Cannabis well
researched and understood by pharmaceutical companies may improve the
quality of life for some who have no other hope of relief.

Many things in the world have both their good and bad sides. Opiate drugs,
for example, have medically valuable incarnations (morphine) and illegal
street products (heroin).

It is time that the government approach cannabis from an additional angle,
not just decrying its dangers - which even the anti-drug campaigners admit
are less than heroin or cocaine - but exploring its positive attributes as
well.