END PROHIBITION

Jack Hunter got a bull's-eye calling for credible drug law reform.
("Just Say No ... More" by Jack Hunter, Dec. 17) At the very least
that means re-legalizing cannabis (marijuana). The relatively safe,
socially acceptable, God-given plant cannabis hasn't killed anyone in
over 5,000 years of documented use, yet it is classified as a
Schedule I substance along with heroin and LSD, while meth and coke
are only Schedule II substances.

And there's part of the problem. The prohibitionist government
propaganda insisting that cannabis is so bad has the effect of
creating contempt toward the warnings about highly addictive and deadly drugs.

How many adults try cannabis and realize it's not nearly as harmful
as taught in DARE-type government environments and think other
substances must not be so bad either, only to become addicted to
deadly substances? Another benefit from ending cannabis prohibition
includes allowing free American farmers to grow hemp, like communist
Chinese farmers do. Some sources indicate that if 10 percent of
American farmland were used to grow hemp, the U.S. would not need to
import any foreign petroleum.

A sane argument to continue prohibiting cannabis and hemp does not exist.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.