I feel obligated to pen a mild rebuttal to Logan Short’s article, “Marijuana Poses Environmental Threat” (Oct. 23).

Cannabis (marijuana) is not the cause of the environmental damage described in Short’s article. It is actually the prohibition of cannabis that creates this egregious harm to our nation’s wild places.

Consider that for decades the only federally legal cannabis in the U.S. is grown by the U.S. government on a farm at the University of Mississippi.

The pot being grown in our national parks and other precious wild lands is being grown largely by Mexican cartels. And the reason we have foreign drug cartels operating these huge and destructive pot plots?

Because prohibition pot is now nearly worth its weight in gold.

Legitimate farming techniques create no such devastation and make the answer obvious.

Legalize cannabis, regulate it like beer and wine, and the cartels will have no compunction to plunder our wild and remote areas.


Allan Erickson
Eugene, OR

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