Letters To The Editor

GREEN HARVEST CAUSES 'ICE' EPIDEMIC, CRIMEWAVE

Aloha. Your editorial of July 8th is one for the record books. Since you
praise it so highly, I dare you to report on the unintended(?) consequences
of your island's marijuana eradication program.

Kauai has a raging "ice" epidemic and other negative social indicators all
around and yet you pretend to wonder where they came from? Duh! From the
program you praise so highly, that's where!

Just ask Dr. Patricia Morgan, Associate Professor of Public Health at U.C.
Berkeley. She did the Hawai'i study connecting the dots from marijuana
eradication directly to the ice epidemic from 1991 - 1994. Her telephone
number is (510) 642-4861. Her email is momorgan@uclink.berkeley.edu.

Prohibition of cannabis has CAUSED the hard drug epidemic, property crimes
and worse on Kauai. Extreme prohibition of the natural and safest
sacrament, medicine and THE all-round most useful plant ON EARTH has taken
most of the cash liquidity out of your island economy over the last 12
years and CAUSED more personal, social, economic and environmental damage
than anything but lava and hurricanes in history. I dare you to examine it.

Your editorial view reminds me of the tone of the Taliban Ministry of
Religion who would spy on home sanctuaries and then deliver extreme and
cruel sentences for gardening. Surely you can do better than that.

Pakaloha,

Roger Christie

The Hawai'i Cannabis Ministry

Hilo