CANNABIS IN US

Thanks very much for your article, "Marijuana As First Amendment
Right" [Courts & Crime News, November 6, 2007], by J. Tobias Beard.

With an estimated 300 million cannabis consumers around the globe,
this is no small issue. And considering the absolute farcical
fabrications underlying the much maligned plant's prohibition, the
case of Carl Olsen touches on much more than religion.

In consideration of cannabis' place as an important agricultural,
medicinal, industrial, spiritual and nutritional commodity around the
globe for thousands of years, pot's prohibition is laughable in the
face of reality. As a medicine its use is ancient. As a religious
sacrament it has for millenia touched many religions in many regions
of the globe.

Napoleon's attack on Russia was over hemp. Hemp/cannabis is a proven
(and highly nutritious) food source, a valuable fabric, a quality
building material, an effective medicine for many conditions
(including quite possibly as a treatment against cancer) and a plant
that has such an ancient association with humanity that we carry
receptors for it in our bodies at a cellular level.

The real debate is not about the validity of Olsen's (or anyone
else's) religious use but rather about the lies that form the
corrupted foundation for all laws against cannabis. Laws based on
lies have no relationship with justice. Without justice, our legal
system is a fraud.

Allan Erickson

Drug Policy Forum of Oregon

Eugene, Oregon