In the July 4 issue of your paper there is the story about Gov. King lifting the ban on helicopters to search out pot plants. In the same issue is an article about cancer in which doctors are quoted as saying, “If Americans quit smoking, the death rate from cancer would plummet.”

It is interesting to me to ponder on this day which celebrates our liberty from England that we have a country which subsidizes and an industry that kills, allowing addictive additives and billions on advertising to seduce our children. Yet for a basically benign leaf, cannibus, the government will go all out to chase those growing it. Probably the Supreme Court ruling allowing civil forfeiture of property has whetted the appetite of law enforcement.

If Gov. King and the Legislature would legalize the growing of industrial hemp, which makes a far better paper than wood, he would create hundreds of agricultural jobs and all those crying in their beer about low pay and dangerous jobs in the woods could be retrained like everyone else in this nation, including the fishermen.

Who do you know who has not lost a job and had to find another line of work? There are hundreds of layoffs all over the country. Jane Sanford Belfast