END CANNABIS PROHIBITION

Props on the outstanding discussion in The Appalachian on the drug
war. I appreciate Professor Matthew Robinson's clarification on
cannabis (marijuana) deaths.

In 1988, after a lengthy study of available data and research Drug
Enforcement Administration Administrative Law Judge Francis Young
declared cannabis to be "one of the safest therapeutic substances
known to man." Following the Reefer Madness dictum of "hide the truth"
Young's report was dismissed and shelved.

In 2007, DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Bittner recommended that
Professor Lyle Craker and UMass be licensed to grow research-grade
marijuana that would be used in approved clinical studies into
cannabis' therapeutic uses and declared it would be "in the public
interest" to do so. Bittner's recommendation was ignored.

However much the Prohibitionists try and quash the truth about
cannabis as medicine, food and industrial fiber, the day of cannabis'
return to a legal, accepted and common agricultural product is not far
off. If truth and scientific research count, pot's prohibition should
end immediately.

Allan Erickson