MARIJUANA AND HEMP BENEFITS

Re "House rejects measure to bar medical marijuana prosecutions," June 16:
Congress must learn to approach the marijuana debate with science,
intelligence and rationality. Marijuana provides proven therapeutic
benefits; the feds permit marijuana prescriptions in pill form. Hemp, the
drug-free stalk that produces marijuana, offers environmentally sound
alternatives to food, clothing, fiber, soap, detergent, lotion and fuel,
just to name a few uses. Both hemp and marijuana were legal until 1937,
right around the time that alcohol use was re-legalized.

Drugs are pernicious and addictive when abused. However, marijuana and hemp
bring greater possibilities to the table than cigarettes or alcohol, which
are both legal despite the terrible damage they create. We can
simultaneously reduce the potency of marijuana and decapitate the violent
drug trade just by making marijuana legal and regulating it like beer, wine
and booze.

Marijuana and hemp policy should be guided by scientific research, not
unfounded fears.

- - Ted Muhlauser, Sacramento