THE MOST USEFUL PLANT ON EARTH

Jeremy Loome's column ("Forget facts, common sense or decency," Nov.
15) makes a forceful case for giving the old heave-ho to cannabis
laws. There is no possible doubt, after exhaustive investigation,
that cannabis is the most useful plant on Earth. Almost anything not
made from glass or metal can be made from Cannabis. Food, fuel,
fibre, medicine. The core reason cannabis is illegal goes back to
when it was made illegal and by whom: wealthy American industrialists
and their bankers who saw hemp as their main competition and
engineered "Reefer Madness." The rest is ugly history. But
prohibition is simply a means to an end, which is control. Alcohol
prohibition and repeal were caused purely by economic forces.
Morality and demonstrations were not factors, and that is easily
demonstrable from the public record. Cannabis prohibition will end
for the same reason. It has already begun.

Bruce Codere

(At least 2,700 years of pot, and they're still fighting it.)