MARIJUANA CAN HELP

Here are some facts to ponder:

Before the 1920s hemp cloth was used for clothing. The first Levi's
were sturdy hemp coveralls. Wagons of the pioneers were covered with
hemp canvas. The word canvas comes from "canabacius" hemp cloth. There
were many other products from the hemp plant from pharmaceuticals to
paint.

In 1898 a miracle drug was introduced by the Bayer company under the
brand name Heroin, and by the mid-1920s there were many addicts to
that and to morphine.

In 1930 the Siler commission was formed to study marijuana smoking by
off-duty servicemen in Panama. It was found that there were no lasting
effects and the commission recommended that there should be no
criminal penalties for its use.

William Randolph Hearst was one of the main movers against the use of
hemp.

In 1937 a machine had been perfected to separate hemp fiber from the
stem and process three tons of hemp per hour. A prediction from Popular
Mechanics: 10,000 acres of hemp will produce as much paper as 40,000
acres of average forest pulp land. Hearst had vast acres of timber
which could have been devalued, and he was able to slant news items to
have hemp (marijuana) outlawed.

Hearst was aided by Harry J. Anslinger, commissioner of the new
Federal Bureau of Narcotics and by the DuPont company, which was
working on new synthetic materials for use instead of hemp and
synthetic petrochemical oils for paints instead of hemp seed oil.

Anslinger was married into the Mellon family and had been appointed to
the Federal Bureau of Narcotics by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon,
who was chairman of the Mellon Bank. DuPont's chief financial backer
was the Mellon Bank.

With the Hearst newspaper horror stories and Anslinger's political
sway, no one paid attention to the American Medical Association, which
tried to argue for the medical benefits of marijuana. That is when
hemp, aka marijuana, was made illegal.

During World War II when the Japanese got the Phillipine hemp there
was a shortage of rope and the U. S. government called for cultivation
again. When the shortage was over it was once again
criminalized.

But when George Bush bailed out of his burning plane over the Pacific:

# Parts of his aircraft engine were lubricated with hemp seed
oil.

# His life-saving parachute webbing was made entirely from U. S. grown
cannabis, hemp.

# Almost all the rigging and ropes of the ship that rescued him were
made of cannabis hemp.

# The fire hoses on the ship were woven from cannabis
hemp.

I am 79 years old and have had continuous pain since the early 1970s
that anti-inflammatory pills and regular pain pills do not touch. My
condition is not as drastic as many who need the crutch of marijuana
just to be able to eat, or need the calming effect on knotted muscles.
Marijuana is not addictive, but can be a crutch. It also is calming
and will not produce rages like alcohol.

Joan Grasspool

Klamath Falls