Pubdate: Fri, 26 Nov 2010
Source: Union, The (Grass Valley, CA)
Copyright: 2010 The Union
Contact: http://apps.theunion.com/utils/forms/lettertoeditor/
Website: http://www.theunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/957
Author: Marcia Winborne-Graven

BATTLE AGAINST POT STARTED YEARS AGO

I agree with John Keane's argument about legalizing hemp (Letters, 
Oct. 27). Farmers were allowed to grow hemp during the Civil War and 
World War I and II because it is valuable for making rope, paper and 
other products.

Dupont may have had a hand in criminalizing it but William Randolph 
Hearst had an even bigger hand and his motives were just as 
scurrilous. Someone had invented a machine to harvest hemp rapidly 
and economically, but Hearst had vast timber holdings which he wanted 
to make millions on, selling it to making newspapers and other paper 
products, and would not allow a cheaper and more ecological source to exist.

So he conducted a huge campaign in all of his newspapers about the 
"horrors and dangers of hemp and pot" (linking them together). Now we 
are still cutting our forests down, when we could be saving them and 
helping the farmers and the economy too. I am completely against 
drugs but I am also against filling up our prisons with non-criminals 
and, in some cases, turning them into criminals.

What we are doing now is not working, so unless someone has a better 
suggestion, I'm with Mr. Keane.

Marcia Winborne-Graven

Auburn
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom