IN SUPPORT OF MORE HEMP HOMEWORK

In asking the question "Why is someone as smart as Mark Leno sponsoring
genuinely stupid legislation to legalize hemp cultivation?" you are
demonstrating how to intellectually walk backward toward a cliff ["Dumb as
a Potted Plant," Matt Smith, April 6]. You might want to stop and ask the
better question: "What can be done to promote industrial hemp, which any
informed individual understands is potentially the single most useful plant
on Earth?"

I must assume you have done next to no homework on the use of hemp as fuel,
food, and fiber. I could provide you with the raw data which explains the
quality of hemp seed products for food, the quality of hemp fiber as a
substitute for wood fiber and synthetic polymers, and the quality of
ethanol from hemp. I will not. The information is readily available, which
suggests you have some aversion to fact and truth and the typical hang-ups
of conservative ideologues. How did you become a reporter anyway? And how
did you become so closed-minded?

Activists in the pot and hemp community have no end of work with the likes
of you spewing lies and disinformation. The rest of the pot crowd just goes
on doing what they do, knowing cannabis is a healing herb whose
benefit-to-risk ratio is exceptionally high. There are too many legitimate
studies amply demonstrating this to list here. Start looking them up if you
want to get useful. You won't like what you find, but then, you only see
what you want to see. Don't you?

Bruce Codere

Fox Creek, Alberta, Canada