POT SHOTS MISS MARK

Your article, "Marijuana gains new foe," Aug. 21, speaks of opponents
to medical cannabis dispensaries in the Inland Valley.

Yet there is a simple truth they refuse to address.

They say dispensaries "will bring criminal activity" when in truth it
is the illegality of some drugs that brings criminal
involvement.

If these groups would understand that in the 70-plus years that
cannabis has been illegal, its prohibition has created a policy of
such monumental failure that the plant is now not only worth its
weight in gold, but it has become the nation's No. 1 agricultural commodity.

Cannabis is medicine.

It is a medicine effective for many conditions and has been used
safely by humanity for thousands of years.

When these groups say that there is an alternative to cannabis in
Marinol, they deny the wishes of the patients themselves, many of whom
have tried the synthetic pharmaceutical and reject it as
ineffective.

Further, it is intrusive government at its worst that says it can
control what U.S. citizens can grow in their gardens or consume in the
privacy of their own homes.

Allan Erickson, Drug Policy Forum of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.