I would like to address the article written by Andy Plonka on the front page of the “Huskie Weekender” of Thursday, April 23, 1992. I wonder if Andy should not be sitting at home writing a really fun novel about the evils of marijuana rather than “reporting” for a newspaper. He obviously enjoys writing without any base in fact. I do not understand how anyone can report on any event without actually attending it. I can only hope that the students of this campus are intelligent enough to realize that he has printed nothing more than a nice load of fraudulent trash.

If Andy would have attended the Hemp Rally which was held on Wednesday, he would have heard speakers announcing much more than the industrial benefits of hemp. Many people who were in the MLK Commons that day were not indeed hiding behind any shield of saving the world. I saw more than one joint floating around in the crowd, and to me, that means that people indeed “…came right out and said why they really want the drug to be legalized—because they want to smoke it.” People do want to smoke marijuana, and we want it legalized so that we do not have to fear getting busted because of ignorant laws written by a closed-minded government.

All of that aside, the industrial, commercial, and medical benefits must not be overlooked. That is why these points are discussed, not because anyone is being hypocritical. Andy was correct on a very few points. Marijuana does have many medical uses including: treatment for glaucoma, an anti-emetic for those suffering from the effects of chemotherapy and AIDS symptoms, sufferers of stress, and numerous other diseases. Environmentally, hemp can be used to make paper as an alternative for trees. Did you know, Andy, that one acre of hemp can yield the same amount of paper as four acres of trees? Did you also know that that acre of hemp will grow back in about six months, while it will take about thirty years for four acres of forest to grow back? I didn’t think so. If you would have attended the rally Wednesday, you might know this.

What it boils down to is this: The naive people on this campus are not the ones who listen to the reasonable arguments for legalizing marijuana. Naive are those who listen to unfounded government propaganda and journalism which is printed without fact, without reason, and without any knowledge of the topic.

In reference to some of that propaganda, I would like to make a slight amendment. Picture the well-known commercial in your heads: “This is your brain, this is your brain on untruth.” Scrambled like an egg, folks.

J.P. Farley

Junior

English