NOT A CURE

The letter about the horrible Hemp Tent at the fair was amusingly off base.
First, legalization could greatly improve our children's safety. The current
laws create an uncontrolled black market. Legalizing would allow control.
Teen-agers that can't buy legal tobacco and beer can easily buy illegal
marijuana and harder drugs.

Industrial hemp is not the same as marijuana. Non-psychoactive varieties are
extremely useful for fiber and oil. Clothing, paper, rope and other superior
quality hemp products were very important before the scare about drugs drove
them off the market. Many things now made of nonrenewable resources could once
again be made of hemp if the hysteria would die down.

The Drug Policy Forum's official stance is that drug use is unwise and
government policy should be such as to actually reduce it. Under the harsh laws
of the last 30 years, drugs have become more available and of purer quality.
Something's not working.

Stiff penalties for selling drugs should remain, but use and possession should
lead to help, not punishment. Never getting a decent job because of a
possession conviction is no "cure" for anything.

Doug Sander

Stillwater