Hemp: the Emperor of the Plant Kingdom
[a letter I wrote to the Albany Times Union on 21 May, 2001. They didn't print it]
My compliments on your May 20 editorial reprimanding the Supreme Court on their medical marijuana ruling. Marijuana is the best medicine currently known for controlling the nausea caused by AIDS drugs and chemotherapy. It and its non-psychoactive cousin, industrial hemp, have a host of other uses: food, medicine, paper, fabric, building material, fuel, and the list goes on (direct your web browser to www.electricemperor.com/eecdrom). Forbidding those uses is both stupid and criminal. But the bottom line is this. My body is my property. The state has no business saying anything whatsoever about what I may or may not ingest.
Bill St. Clair bill@billstclair.com