HEMP, HEMP, HEMP, HEMP

Dear Editor, Regarding Jordan Smith's March 16 column ["Reefer
Madness," News], the U.S. is one of the few countries in the world
that denies farmers the right to grow industrial hemp. Apparently,
government bureaucrats in Washington can't tell the difference
between a tall hemp stalk and a short marijuana bush. Prior to the
passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, few Americans had even
heard of marijuana, despite widespread cultivation of its
nonintoxicating cousin, industrial hemp. The first anti-marijuana
laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early
1900s. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have
been counterproductive at best.

White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be
entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness
propaganda. The original reefer madness myths have long been
discredited, forcing the drug war gravy train to spend millions of
tax dollars on politicized research, trying to find harm in a
relatively harmless plant. The direct experience of millions of
Americans contradicts the lies used to justify marijuana prohibition.
Reefer madness is a poor excuse for criminalizing Americans who
prefer marijuana to martinis. There is no excuse for denying farmers
the right to grow industrial hemp.

For historical background, please visit:
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/vlr/vlrtoc.htm. For
additional historical background from an impeccable source, please
see the Canadian Senate report:
www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/ille-e/rep-e/summary-e.pdf.

Sincerely, Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy