Re "House: Keep pot illegal," Sep 16. With logic straight out of the Dark
Ages, the House has again reaffirmed its "message to teenagers and the
nation" that the hemp plant is so intrinsically evil that even patients
with terminal illnesses are better off suffering rather than risking their
soul by seeking relief from the devil's garden.

This quasi-religious campaign of ferreting out doctors and patients
who use the forbidden hemp medicine, harshly punishing them and
branding them with a lifetime police record is a barbaric policy based
on fear and ignorance, and only discredits other, more valid anti-drug
messages.

--Mark Pritchett, Sacramento