Pubdate: Thu, 19 Nov 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n648/a06.html

LET US MOVE TO A POINT WHERE MARIJUANA IS TREATED AS AGRICULTURE

REGARDING YOUR Nov. 13 editorial in support of the Bay State Repeal 
model for legalizing marijuana, I agree that having the Department of 
Agriculture regulate marijuana makes sense. The Campaign to Regulate 
Marijuana Like Alcohol seems to believe that regulating marijuana 
like Kryptonite will appeal to voters.

It's a plant. In a few years, farmers will cultivate legal marijuana 
under natural sunlight. Right now, illegal marijuana is cultivated in 
environmentally destructive wilderness "grows" and in suburban 
basements under artificial lights, with massive carbon footprints. 
When legal marijuana is grown by farmers, it will be virtually 
worthless. This is important. Financial incentives drive destructive 
cultivation practices.

Mexican drug cartels don't sneak into national forests to cultivate 
cucumbers and tomatoes. They cannot compete with farmers. For the 
sake of the environment, the sooner the marijuana plant is treated as 
a legal agricultural commodity, the better.

Robert Sharpe, Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom