Source: Skagit Valley Herald Pubdate: 4/5/97 The following letter to the editor was printed in the 4/5/97 issue of the Skagit Valley Herald. I do not include contact info for them because they do not want any out of town writers for a little while. I don't think this writer is a MAPer, but it's great! She's a local. Allison Hemp The real puzzle That was an excellent column on the ecological benefits of hemp by Allison Bigelow March 12. Her concise articulation of related facts clarified a politically weighted and emotionally conditioned subject. It seems puzzling that drug warriors are set upon keeping marijuana illegal after all these years (though it is neither addictive like nicotine, nor involved, like alcohol, in domestic violence, debilitation, or driving deaths) until you consider the legislative influence of tobacco, liquor and pharmaceutical concerns, which are wary of sharing their markets. Prevailing opinion would have us dare not grow hemp, for it might enable easy cultivation of marijuana. More accurately, perhaps we dare not tolerate marijuana, lest it lead to the proliferation of hemp, a perceived threat to interests that thrive on oil and wood. Subsidized logging and military will notwithstanding, forests and fossil fuels are finite. The real puzzle is that endangered industries haven't leapt to their feet to lobby for hemp production in a bid for future relevance. If compassion and sanity are beyond range of the bottom line, at least intelligence and foresight for survival might be employed. Until they are, much depends upon our informed individual thinking and conscientious choice. Katherine Scott Anacortes