*LETTERS TO THE EDITOR



The Marijuana Plot (1)
To The Nyack Villager:
The Marijuana Plot (Nyack Villager April, 08) was a light in the darkness of most materials published in the mainstream about drugs. However, there are a couple of things worth considering. The notion that the crusade against marijuana was motivated by the greed of the paper industry to suppress hemp as an alternative to wood-pulp is only part of a
more complex reality. Other factors include the racism alluded to in the article, a fear of people of color and the opportunity drug laws, applied with great bias, afforded for scapegoating and imprisoning them. Even today, it is widely accepted that drug abuse is as common amongst white people as any other race, yet a disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos are arrested and more importantly, convicted.

Another contributing factor to the demonizing of pot is the long-standing intolerance of altered states of consciousness by a powerful puritanical mentality in the US. Despite strong evidence of the healing potential of many psychedelic substances for mental and emotional problems, including addictions, as with marijuana, these all remain classified as Schedule 1 drugs, alongside heroin & cocaine.

Finally, after an otherwise informative article, tossed in at the end, is the statement, "Most experts agree-like tobacco, marijuana is addictive and not good for your health." The deeper truth is that human beings can abuse and become addicted to just about anything:
substances, behaviors and even beliefs. As a psychotherapist who has focused on addiction issues for 30 years, my view is that abuse and addiction are psycho-physical problems, best resolved through education and therapeutic work. The War on Drugs, in addition to all the other problems it has caused, has only made appropriate drug awareness education and treatment more difficult.
-Alan Levin, M.A., L.M.F.T. Nyack

Marijuana Plot (2)
To The Nyack Villager-
Shel Haber is to be commended for exposing the racist roots of marijuana prohibition in his
April column. If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda. By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers in California, the very same Bush administration that claims illicit drug use funds terrorism, is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the hands of street dealers.
Apparently marijuana prohibition is more important than protecting the country from
terrorism.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/vlr/vlrtoc.htm from Virginia Law Review, offers a good overview of marijuana legislation-

Sincerely,-Robert Sharpe, MPA, Policy Analyst
Common Sense for Drug Policy,
P.O. Box 5918, Washington, DC 20012
www.csdp.org (703) 228-1762

Marijuana Plot (3)
To The Nyack Villager-
I'm writing about Shel Haber's outstanding column, The Marijuana Plot, The Nyack Villager, April 2008

Prior to the Reefer Madness propaganda and lies that created the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 and criminalized marijuana, we had almost no problems with marijuana or its users.

There are two types of people who support the continued criminalization of marijuana: Those with a vested financial interest in the prohibition of marijuana (including drug-war cheerleading politicians who are probably on the payroll of the drug cartels) and suckers-taxpayers who pay to support the world's largest prison system, our unwinnable war on drugs and who have bought into the propaganda and lies of the drug-war bureaucracy and industry. -Kirk Muse, Mesa, AZ

Marijuana Plot (4)
To The Nyack Villager-
Great write up on cannabis. Here in Canada we view cannabis as a medicine. Harm reduction and the compassion club movement have been at the forefront of this revolution. For all the info, visit www.thecompassionclub.org
-name withheld at writer's request

Marijuana Plot (5)
To The Nyack Villager-
Please add my research data base to your information resource.
-Debby Moore food@hempforus.com

Marijuana Plot (6)
To The Nyack Villager-
Marijuana (hemp) can produce more than 1,200 gallons of gasoline per acre, but we hear nothing of using it as a bio-source of fuel.
Does gasoline have to reach $10 a gallon before we utilize a hemp/fuel crop that can put a real dent in the need for imported oil?

Does reefer madness run so deep that planetary destruction is preferable to legal marijuana?
-Ralph Givens, Daly City, CA

Marijuana Plot (7)
To The Nyack Villager-
The marijuana story was great! Here's a funny little anecdote: many years ago, at a Congers PTA meeting, a judge who had a long, successful career swore,"I will not get a good
night's sleep as long as there is one marijuana
cigarette in the county!"

Other drug note: Cocaine imports are being reduced-not by the DEA alone, but by the strength of the euro. You probably have read that the Taj Mahal is not accepting dollars, but did you know that Cuba threw out the dollar in 2004, and that one has to pay a
premium to change dollars there?

Keep up the beautiful work--the cover is
exquisite! How do you do it??!!
-name withheld at writer's request

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