AMERICAN BIG BUSINESS STARTED ANTI-POT MOVEMENT

The Editor,

Re: "Mellow out, people: it's just a little marijuana," the Now, Sept. 7.

I enjoyed reading "Mellow out people: It's just a little marijuana."
Clearly, the author has a proper perspective. I find that most people
opposing decriminalization are ignorant of the true effects of marijuana.
They seem to have bought the drug war propaganda, hook, line and sinker.

It's not that North Americans decided that it was "bad." In fact, corporate
greed led to the wave of hysteria.

The Hearst newspapers had just locked up forestry rights for paper
production, an industry that would be threatened by hemp production. They
were joined by the petrochemical industry that had just discovered
plastics, but was also threatened by the versatility of hemp. Together,
they spread the disinformation far and wide, with a copious helping of
racism (it's the drug of the Mexicans, it makes black men rape white women,
yadda yadda yadda).

Prohibition is doomed, and informed people know it. Talk to your friends,
and spread the word. The drug war causes more harm than drug use itself,
and the most glaring example is the marijuana ban.

Danny Terwey, Pacifica, Calif.