[420 Girl]

Thank goodness for letters. 'Tis about the only place to find occasional mention of the War On ( some ) Drugs. Writer Robert Simms, in his letter "Politics of Poppies" ( 11/15 ), makes noise about some of the most glaring points in the perpetuity of failure that is the drug war.

Besides the economic boost our drug war is providing to the Taliban and others in the Middle East, here at home the story is the same but different. Instead of funding the Taliban, we here in the U.S. fund Asian cartels operating indoor pot farms and Latin American crime organizations responsible for outdoor pot "farms" growing thousands and tens of thousands of plants in single locations, ruining domestic water sources and destroying habitat. Where once domestic herb came from the toil of hard-working locals, now we have international criminal syndicates reaping the profits.

The drug war is a boon, a goose laying golden eggs, for the world's drug cartels ( and its corporate counterpart, the for-profit military-drugwar-industrial-prison-complex ).

Here in Oregon -- where we have probably the nation's most successful medical cannabis program -- "crime fighting" knucklehead Kevin Mannix is seeking to dismantle the state's self-sufficient Oregon Medical Marijuana Program ( OMMP ) and replace it with a policy that would have the state paying for the synthetic cannabinoid pharmaceutical Marinol for patients who want to continue using cannabis medicine. He wants to replace a program ( the OMMP ) that put back almost one million dollars into the state's coffers in 2005. How many medical programs put money IN to a state's funds?

While those who oppose the war in Iraq hold large demonstrations and get major airtime on national media, the drug war gets no or little notice. Even though our drug policies affect every community in the nation, seriously continue to erode the Constitution and have police raiding homes in military assault team fashion ( anyone remember 5th and Adams? ) the War On ( some ) Drugs remains the forgotten stepchild of politics.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...rted-herb.html