THE HITCHES OF HEMP

Regarding yesterday's article, "DEA set to battle pot advocates over hemp
use in food" [Nation], let me say that it's not just the Drug Enforcement
Administration that's set to do battle. There are millions of grass-roots
parents and grandparents and service organization members linked in a
movement to educate America about these issues and stop the movement to
legalize pot and other drugs.

Pushing hemp and the medical marijuana hoax are intertwined. Americans need
to know hemp is just another name for marijuana. It's all part of the same
plant.

Legalizers are only getting extensive publicity on these issues because of
the fat cat millionaires who, according to reports in Reader's Digest and
The Washington Post, are funding the pro-pot movement in America. This
dangerous group includes billionaire financier George Soros, Peter Lewis,
CEO of Cleveland-based Progressive Auto Insurance company, and John
Sperling, president of the Apollo Group, a holding company that controls
for-profit universities and job-training centers.

The Washington Post also reported on June 3, 2002, about pollster John
Zogby, who does the legalizers' dirty work by polling the on-line mailing
list of the Marijuana Policy Project [MPP], the most pro-pot group operating
in the country today. For every 500 registrants MPP supplies to Mr. Zogby,
he places a marijuana polling question for MPP in one of his nationwide
polls - both online and via traditional telephone survey methods. When you
survey the potheads, you expect to get high percentages of support for pot.

Pushing drugs and pushing misinformation are both very dangerous. Recently,
after a vigorous lobbying effort by drug legalizers, 125 members of Congress
voted to support MPP's "medical pot" myth. The vote was taken on the same
day the largest medical malpractice insurance company, Medical Liability
Mutual Insurance Co., announced in the U.S. Capitol, it "excludes
experimental drugs and those not commonly in use because we are covering
what is consistent with accepted standards of care. We don't want to be on
the hook for drugs that don't have FDA approval." This would include
marijuana. Is it any wonder the public is confused?

JOYCE NALEPKA

President
Drug-Free Kids: America's Challenge
Silver Spring