WRITER SAYS COLUMN INCORRECT ABOUT POT

I feel obligated to pen a mild rebuttal to Logan Short's article,
"Marijuana Poses Environmental Threat" (Oct. 23).

Cannabis (marijuana) is not the cause of the environmental damage
described in Short's article. It is actually the prohibition of
cannabis that creates this egregious harm to our nation's wild places.

Consider that for decades the only federally legal cannabis in the
U.S. is grown by the U.S. government on a farm at the University of
Mississippi.

The pot being grown in our national parks and other precious wild
lands is being grown largely by Mexican cartels. And the reason we
have foreign drug cartels operating these huge and destructive pot
plots?

Because prohibition pot is now nearly worth its weight in
gold.

Legitimate farming techniques create no such devastation and make the
answer obvious.

Legalize cannabis, regulate it like beer and wine, and the cartels
will have no compunction to plunder our wild and remote areas.

Allan Erickson

Eugene, OR