The following letter to the editor was printed in the 4/5/97 issue of
the Skagit Valley Herald. I do not include contact info for them because
they do not want any out of town writers for a little while. I don't
think this writer is a MAPer, but it's great! She's a local. Allison

Hemp
The real puzzle

That was an excellent column on the ecological benefits of hemp by
Allison Bigelow March 12. Her concise articulation of related facts
clarified a politically weighted and emotionally conditioned subject.
It seems puzzling that drug warriors are set upon keeping marijuana
illegal after all these years (though it is neither addictive like
nicotine, nor involved, like alcohol, in domestic violence,
debilitation, or driving deaths) until you consider the legislative
influence of tobacco, liquor and pharmaceutical concerns, which are wary
of sharing their markets.
Prevailing opinion would have us dare not grow hemp, for it might
enable easy cultivation of marijuana. More accurately, perhaps we dare
not tolerate marijuana, lest it lead to the proliferation of hemp, a
perceived threat to interests that thrive on oil and wood.
Subsidized logging and military will notwithstanding, forests and
fossil fuels are finite. The real puzzle is that endangered industries
haven't leapt to their feet to lobby for hemp production in a bid for
future relevance. If compassion and sanity are beyond range of the
bottom line, at least intelligence and foresight for survival might be
employed. Until they are, much depends upon our informed individual
thinking and conscientious choice.

Katherine Scott
Anacortes