RESEARCH INFO

To the editor:

The drug war would end overnight if reporters would take the time to
research the information passed to them from law enforcement. (Police
Agencies Get $ Share From U.S. Customs Program, Ogdensburg
Journal/Advance News, Friday 3 may 2002. By reporter Bob Beckstead).

U.S. Customs Service Resident Agent Carmen Pino was quoted "Marijuana
seized in the North Country comes from across the Canadian border and
has a 40 percent THC content."

He doesn't say where he gets that whopper of a statistic and that's
too bad, since it conflicts with a federally funded investigation of
marijuana samples confiscated by law enforcement over the past two
decades.

Published in the January, 2000, Journal of Forensic Science, that
study found the THC content had only doubled to 4.2 percent from about
2 percent from 1980 to 1997.

The propagandized web site of the Drug Enforcement Agency only goes as
high as 12.32%. ("The Cannabis Situation in the United States,"
December 1999.)

LARRY SEGUIN
Lisbon, New York