Pot War Senseless

Check out this interesting letter to the editor in the Boston Herald, with a great quote from Lincoln:

The article about legalizing marijuana was seriously misnamed (“Pot legalization efforts gain momentum in U.S.,” June 16). It should have been about the relegalization of pot. The hemp plant has been used for thousands of years for medicinal and industrial purposes. But it was the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 that sounded the death knell of this multipurpose plant. And this bill was passed on politics, greed and blatant racism. Not on medical or scientific fact.

I’m not condoning drug use, but when the alleged cure for a disease is worse than the disease itself, alternatives should at least be considered. Abraham Lincoln said, “A prohibition law strikes at the very principles upon which our government was founded, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes.”

Time for a drug peace.

- Joe Genevich, Dorchester

In the effort of vain glory we have allowed the force and power of government to be used to shape men (humans) into beings a small group envisioned, all at the expense of our freedoms and liberties.

You know, back when opium and marijuana were legal, prior to the early 20th Century, we never had the drug use like we do today.