POT BAN A FAILURE

Dear Editor,

After over 60 years of Cannabis Prohibition - what is the result?

- -Almost no public knowledge about Industrial Cannabis as a renewable resource.

- -Deforestation instead of using Cannabis for paper products and building
materials is causing millions of acres of trees, including the Amazon
Rainforest, to disappear, critically altering world ecosystems.

- -Discontinuing production and development of once popular and commonly used
hemp biomass fuels has forced our dependence on fuel to be supplied only by
oil and coal monopolies. Burning their fossil fuel products is the main
cause of global warming.

- -Plastic, paint, explosive, fertilizer, and other industries lost the right
to make their products with hemp cellulose. There is no other as suitable a
plant source for cellulose, so synthetic fossil fuel products are being
used instead. Manufacturing products from a toxic, non-biodegradable fossil
fuel source is poisoning our air, contaminating soil and many lakes and
rivers, and filling our landfills with tons of waste that will not decompose.

- -Millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens have been arrested for
marijuana possession, making criminals and felons out of people who are not.

- -U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, four times higher
than anywhere else.

- -Prison construction and employment have been among the largest growth
industries in the U.S., while spending for schools has dwindled to less
than one-fifth that of prison building expenditures.

- -Fossil fuel monopolies have bought and manipulated control in our
government to protect their profits from any competition from Cannabis. For
this, our country is becoming an armed camp, filling jails with casual
Cannabis users and empowering an army of prohibition enforcers to invade
the liberties of citizens on slight evidence, or suspicion.

The catastrophic environmental results of Cannabis Prohibition are becoming
more threatening every day.

The results on our society are evident as we prioritize jails over schools
so we can imprison millions of non-violent citizens for victimless crimes.

Sincerely,

Michele Bajan