Pubdate: Wed, 20 Apr 2005
Source: SF Weekly (CA)
Copyright: 2005 New Times Inc
Contact:  http://www.sfweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/812
Author: Bruce Codere
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n000/a114.html

IN SUPPORT OF MORE HEMP HOMEWORK

In asking the question "Why is someone as smart as Mark Leno sponsoring 
genuinely stupid legislation to legalize hemp cultivation?" you are 
demonstrating how to intellectually walk backward toward a cliff ["Dumb as 
a Potted Plant," Matt Smith, April 6]. You might want to stop and ask the 
better question: "What can be done to promote industrial hemp, which any 
informed individual understands is potentially the single most useful plant 
on Earth?"

I must assume you have done next to no homework on the use of hemp as fuel, 
food, and fiber. I could provide you with the raw data which explains the 
quality of hemp seed products for food, the quality of hemp fiber as a 
substitute for wood fiber and synthetic polymers, and the quality of 
ethanol from hemp. I will not. The information is readily available, which 
suggests you have some aversion to fact and truth and the typical hang-ups 
of conservative ideologues. How did you become a reporter anyway? And how 
did you become so closed-minded?

Activists in the pot and hemp community have no end of work with the likes 
of you spewing lies and disinformation. The rest of the pot crowd just goes 
on doing what they do, knowing cannabis is a healing herb whose 
benefit-to-risk ratio is exceptionally high. There are too many legitimate 
studies amply demonstrating this to list here. Start looking them up if you 
want to get useful. You won't like what you find, but then, you only see 
what you want to see. Don't you?

Bruce Codere

Fox Creek, Alberta, Canada 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake