THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO IDEA WHAT IT IS DOING

Sometimes the parenthetical remarks by the editor seem rather obtuse at times.

For example, when Robert Merkin lambasted the government for failing to
properly grow a weed -- marijuana -- and distribute it to patients, and
that he could fail them for less money, you responded with "Very amusing,
but what the government wants to do is provide a regular, standardized
supply -- and that's easier said than done."

It may be easier said than done, but only for the government, and I think
that is the point of Mr. Merkin's letter.

Marijuana has been cultivated and bred for certain characteristics -- just
as have tomatoes, corn and other agricultural products for decades. The
problem is the government has no idea what it is doing, and they seem to
like it that way --nice and expensive, and a good stall tactic to boot.

Maybe when they really want to create a standardized, regular medical
supply, they'll ask the people who know how to grow it, or perhaps they'll
ask the American National Institute on Drug Abuse how they grow their
"standardized medical supply" they've been mailing out to patients for decades.

Ahhh, but that would mean they'd then have to deliver the product, wouldn't it?

Strange how the only people who can't grow a good supply of pot are the
ones who never wanted to grow it in the first place; no one else seems to
have a problem.

Jim White

Oregon, Ohio

(Rest assured, Jim, that our government doesn't need to want to foul
something up to foul something up)