GOLDEN WEED

"Law enforcement says the growers are just kidding themselves.
'Eventually they all get captured . . . ,' says Thomas O'Brien, a Drug
Enforcement Administration spokesperson in Spokane" [The Drug Issue,
"The Bud Report," Aug. 13]: Uh, to this reader, it appears the DEA has
been fooling itself since its inception in 1973. Serving to continue
the Big Lie that was begun in the 1930s.

Can anyone deny crime pays? Handsomely? People can grow gold on a
weed, and some wonder why our policy is counterproductive. . . . If
everyone gets busted eventually, it is hard to envision how marijuana
has become our No. 1 cash crop in this country. I think the hype about
B.C. bud was always propaganda created by our DEA to justify meddling
in Canadian affairs concerning their moves toward decriminalization
and medical marijuana. It is hard to tell the public you need to wage
war on tolerant attitudes. Said propaganda always rang false, because
we are flooding Canada with far more soft and hard drugs, and guns,
than they ship here in a relative trickle.

Matthew Hulett

Brick, N J