Pubdate: Sat, 08 Mar 2014
Source: New Haven Register (CT)
Copyright: 2014 New Haven Register
Contact:  http://www.nhregister.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/292
Author: Matthew Stover
Page: A6

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION SHOULD BE REPEALED

My great-grandparents gifted my Grandpa with a tavern, at Church &
Chapel Streets in New Haven, when Gramps graduated from NYU. The year
was 1924. The extensive array of liquor covered the walls of the back
bar, behind the restaurant, in vintage photographs.

Fats Waller frequently hung out, there - and the marijuana that they
smoked was perfectly legal. The tavern closed, with the repeal of
prohibition. I like to imagine that we'd still have had our New Haven
tavern, if alcohol hadn't been repealed. Yet, just as repeal was the
right thing to do, then, abolishing marijuana prohibition is of utmost
importance today.

Unlike with alcohol, America was founded using industrial marijuana
products such as canvas, hemp paper, soaps, paints, and so on. The
prohibition of cannabis, under the mandated pejorative, "marihuana"
(FDR, 1937) is utterly more offensive to American history than alcohol
prohibition was.

- - Matthew Stover

Philadelphia, Pa.
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MAP posted-by: Matt