Dear Sir I was quite horrified and disgusted when I read the following from an article from your publication which was reprinted on the website of allAfrica.com: “They are creating confusion; cannabis cannot treat illnesses because we have enough medicine for treating patients. Instead, those drugs lead to people slaughtering their wives and other shocking crimes, things that our people do not engage in on sober minds.” Why I was so disturbed is that the above quote from the Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services, Petrina Haingura, sounds not just vaguely but rather exactly like the following quote from Harry Anslinger, who was the Director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in the USA in the era surrounding the marijuana tax act of 1937, the first piece of legislationÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ºvilifyingÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ºcannabis and igniting the 70-year long world’s governments’ war against cannabis use. It reads: “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana can cause white women to seek sexual relations with negroes, entertainers and any others … The primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.” Are black-skinned people actually so out of control, or is this the flip-side of Mr Anslinger’s, “race card,” which leaves out the words, “negroes,” and, “degenerate races,” due to the audience, but leaves in the innuendo which suggests that cannabis users are violent, less-than-human beings who need to be insulted, demeaned, and vilified? Would you please tell me the difference between Mr Anslinger’s position in his congressional testimony and the quote from his counterpart quoted above, preferably in an editorial apologizing for having published this piece of inflammatory nonsense? In the alternative, can you publish the statistics which prove her point about cannabis use and the concomitant, “slaughtering,” of wives and other, “shocking crimes,” (like playing Jazz and Swing)? I am sure all would appreciate knowing either that Ms Haingura is out of her mind or that cannabis is causing actual, provable slaughters. Perhaps you could show some of the bodies? One could also ask the whereabouts of her condemnation of alcohol which in fact does cause things that our people (negroes?) do not engage in on sober minds (really? has she been to Sudan, Congo, Rwanda andÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ºBurundi in the past 10 years? Is she saying cannabis is the cause of this slaughtering? After all, “our people do not engage in [these things] on sober minds. Thoroughly shaken and disgusted, Eric Johnson AMSTERDAM