WE ALL NEED TO WATCH THE WEED CAREFULLY

Dear sirs,

I want to thank The Austin Chronicle for printing the series "Weed
Watch," keeping the public informed about the most popular drug in
America and the world.

For thousands of years the oil pressed from hemp seed lit the homes of
millions of people in Aladdin-style lamps. During times of drought and
disaster the nutritious hemp seed (containing all the amino acids
needed to live) saved thousands of lives from starvation. The fibers
from the hemp stem produced rope, canvas sails, and the sturdy clothes
the ordinary man wore. The paper produced from hemp helped bring about
an advanced civilization. The flowers and leaves of the hemp plant
(cannabis) were and are used in many kinds of medicines. It also
produces an enjoyable high so loved by millions, if not billions of
people around the world.

Its toxicity is so low it can be labeled nontoxic (unlike any of our
legal drugs).

Now members of our government are trying to erase all the history of
hemp from our Smithsonian Institute. There is already very little
information on hemp in our history books. I guess the information will
disappear just like Bush's military records did. The war waged on the
world's most useful plant by chemical and pharmaceutical companies
(which can replace many of their products) and laws that are used as a
tool to promote racism are in a word, evil.

Now that our country has taken an extreme turn to the right, our
history is being erased. Our personal freedoms, religious freedoms,
and judicial freedoms are being erased right along with it. We must
stand up to these people before they start burning books like Hitler.

JULIAN WARD