WE DON'T NEED NO AL CAPONES

John English, the director of For Our Children's Children, would lead
us to believe that keeping marijuana illegal will some how protect our
children ("Also, hemp pants are dumb," letters, May 5). I guess he
forgot the lessons of alcohol prohibition: when alcohol was made
illegal the biggest problem soon became the laws against alcohol and
the corruption and problems they caused, which were even worse than
the problems caused by alcohol itself. And alcohol consumption amongst
the young increased during prohibition.

I guess that English just can't see the problems that keeping cannabis
illegal has caused, like the loss of freedom to the more then 500,000
people arrested every year in the USA.

If you are honest you will admit that no one wants their young
children to drink alcohol, so why not just prohibit alcohol?

Because it does not work, dummy. And saying that a user of cannabis
cannot tell the truth is like saying every drinker of alcohol only
tells lies; it is just plain untrue. It would be like saying that
directors of children's organizations or substance abuse clinics are
just in it for the money, and therefore should not be listened to.

Saying hemp pants are dumb is also just ignorant. Did you know that
the first American flag flown in America was made of hemp?

DAVID WATSON

Chairman

International Hemp Association

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Anchorage Press Editor's note: the headline "Also, hemp pants are
dumb" (letters, May 5) was not written by John English, the
letter-writer. It was written by the editor writing this note, in an
effort to summarize the letter writer's attitude and position. In
fact, for all we know John English likes hemp pants. He might even
wear them. But probably not.