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Letters to the Editor

Is Willett on Hemp?

My congratulations on the
successful launch of UNBC's
official student newspaper. I
was particularly pleased to see
the inclusion of the article
"Hemp: Opinion." An article
which will certainly allow for
debate within the student
community. I congratulate
Stephanie Willett for taking on
such a controversial subject. [
do however, take exception to
many of the arguments she
uses to justify the legalization
of hemp.

That hemp is, in some
locations of the world, a
naturally occurring plant offers
little to support the contention
that the growing = and
possession of this plant should
be legalized. The logical
extension of this argument is
that opium should be legalized,
after all the poppy is not only a
naturally occurring plant, it is
quite beautiful also. Of course
we should then include all the
hallucinogenic mushrooms and
other plants which can be
found throughout North
America and other parts of the
world. She goes on to state
that "It is a hell of a lot more
natural than tobacco..." this is
clearly false. Tobacco has been
a naturally- occurring plant in
parts of North America since
prior to European contact.

She then claims that it
"probably does not have the
horrible side effects associated
with long-term tobacco and
alcohol use.” Where is the
evidence for this statement? I
know of no studies to suggest
that smoking, and let's stop
being afraid of using the word,
marijuana is safer than the
smoking of tobacco or the
ingestion of alcohol.

The fact that hemp has
other uses, an argument used
to sidestep the issue of
legalizing marijuana, is at best
specious. It is true that hemp
can be used to make rope but I

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wonder about the quality of
that rope. Any rope made
from natural fibres is subject to
rotting and is for this reason
much less desirable than rope
made from various man-made
substances such as
polypropelene. I would also
question the value of hemp as
a textile fibre; how many
people today wear ponchos??

That the use of hemp will
solve our problems within the
forestry industry is unclear.
What is the quality of paper
manufactured from hemp
fibre? Is that paper suitable for
use as newsprint, photocopy
computer paper, fax
paper, magazine stock, etc.,
etc. Further where is all this
hemp going to be grown. It
would seem to me that it
would take huge amounts of
land to grow the required
amount of hemp to replace
wood pulp. Is Ms. Willett
suggesting that we use current
agricultural land to grow this
plant thus reducing the
availability of foodstuffs both
in Canada and the world? Or
is she suggesting that we clear
new areas of land to
accommodate all the new
hemp farms? If it is the latter,
how much forested land will
have to be destroyed, with all
the related environmental and
ecological issues this raises, to
grow sufficient hen.p to make
it commercially viable?

The fact that alcohol and
tobacco are legal drugs does
not logically lead to the
legalization of marijuana.
What Ms. Willett is suggesting
is that we ignore the billions of
dollars spent annually to
counteract the effects of
tobacco and alcohol. She is
saying that to make it easier to
purchase marijuana, to make it
more socially acceptable and

. thereby increase its use, and all

the problems which will
accompany its misuse, is
acceptable to society. Ms.
Willett is missing one very

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important point; society is
becoming increasingly more
intolerant of the use and
misuse of alcohol and tobacco.
The main reason advocates of
hemp legalization are pushing
for restricted legalization, i.e.
commercial use only, is that
Previous attempts to legalize
marijuana have failed
miserably and they see this as
a foot-in-the-door approach.
Ms. Willett has not
convinced me _ that the
legalization of hemp is a
beneficial step for society to
take.
Tony Lort

Women or Rex?

I view the Women's
Group at UNBC much like I
view the Tyrannosaurus Rex in
Jurassic Park; their. strength is

unbound and if their demands ~

are not met, they will
systematically terrorize the
park, destroying each species
for no other reason than its
very existence. Fortunately,
the fences are still operational
in the park, and the designers
should spare no expense in
keeping them that way. To

: Free D eliv

over THE EDGE-Friday November 4, 1994 5

me, the most logical solution is
to put another T-Rex of equal
power in that sector; therefore,
all the dinosaurs in the park are
not constantly looking over
their shoulder in fear of being
ripped apart unjustly. Is it a
bad idea to form a Men's
Group. with a designated men's
study room and many sections
of men's history, men's
literature and men's studies? If
it is a bad idea we should
seriously redefine equal
opportunity.

In the first week of
classes I was invited to a
potluck dinner at Fort George
Park. The purpose of this
dinner was to welcome women
to UNBC. Not to welcome
students or faculty, but to
welcome women. I offer the
organizers a brief hint: equal
opportunity is just that, equal.
It is not achieved through
segregation, it is achieved
through the belief that one is

than anyone else, The people
in the Women's Group need to
realize that they are not being
discriminated against. Not in
the least. Unless one considers

receiving five thousand
dollars, a designated room on
campus and a computer
discrimination, but I doubt it.

Walking by the
Women's center at UNBC I
read on the door "Important
meeting...all women
welcome!" The women in the
women's group want me out of
this room for no other reason
than my gender. Am I to be
held personally responsible for
every wrong done to a woman
by every man? I think not.

If I wrote that I
thought all women were
stupid, lazy and greedy there
would undoubtedly be an
uproar on campus. What must
be realized however is that that
is my opinion and I am entitled

(continued on page 7)

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