Source: trib.com
Editor:
Governments have been deceiving Americans since the 1930s. The biggest lobbyists against legalizing cannabis, known as pharmaceutical marijuana and hemp, are police unions and pharmaceutical corporations. They have benefited from the $2.2 trillion spent to combat drugs.
Cannabis marijuana was prohibited in 1937 because of Harry J. Anslinger. He was head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which was running out of money after Prohibition ended. In 1906, the Poisons Act was established. By 1937, most states had put cannabis on it. Pharmaceutical marijuana and industrial hemp were never meant to be listed. In 1915, Wyoming added cannabis to the Poisons Act.
Industrial hemp contains 0.3 percent THC; marijuana contains 5 to 30 percent THC -- as different as day and night.
First, Wyoming robbed itself of billions of dollars and cheated its citizens out of a way to provide for themselves. An estimated 50,000 products can be made from industrial hemp. That requires processing plants, mills, grain elevators, refiners, farmers, bankers, factories, trucking companies, railroads and tens of thousands of workers.
Next, those against cannabis say it is a gateway drug. It is – it's the drug that patients and doctors turn to so they can break the addiction of prescription drugs.
Third, the Poisons Act was supposed to protect people from addiction. Instead, it caused a new addiction -- to grants and money. It also prompted members of the International Association of Chiefs of Police to lobby against cannabis, in fear they and the state would lose money. Congress is trying to figure out an exit strategy, and when it does, Wyoming will have another nail in the coffin because it tried to take the easy way, like it did with the fossil fuel industry. Wyoming is going through hardship by choice.
The government should have been thinking of options like becoming the banking state or milling and manufacturing capital for cannabis. Unemployment is at 8 percent in Campbell County. Health care programs are on the verge of failing. Wyoming should be on cannabis care.
I wouldn't vote for anyone who thinks cannabis is bad for Wyoming. I hope you don't, either.
BILL FORTNER, Gillette
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