Last week as my wife and I was returning from Virginia, I noticed several billboards along the interstate bringing attention to the development of “medical marijuana” greenhouses within the state in future months. Immediately my thoughts went to our city, Wilmington, Ohio, which in not so many months will have a 19-acre greenhouse growing what was once an illegal drug, all in the name of “medical science.”

What utter hogwash! Our city, like other cities across our nation, has sold themselves out, not in the name of science, but to a selfish craving to look at any revenue-producing avenue, regardless of the potential danger.

Wilmington, like all cities across our nation, is fighting an infusion of drugs coming into our community. Today cocaine and meth is killing our citizens at an increasing rate, with no indication this trend will get any better. Every day I see in the news reports about the carnage drugs are having, and politicians along with law enforcement are scratching their heads on what to do. I’ve talked with many past and present drug users, and all of them will tell you it starts with marijuana.

So here we are, building a 19-acre greenhouse to grow “medical marijuana.” Now there may be some medical proof that it can relieve some symptoms of pain, but let’s not kid ourselves, most marijuana trading hands today is not for medical purposes, and to believe otherwise, requires those to pull their head out of the sand.

Go to the California coast along the beach and you will see tent after tent stating “The doctor is in” prescribing marijuana for anything from headaches to hangnails. This is what Wilmington and hundreds of other cities across our nation are heading toward. So, when you read tomorrow’s newspaper or watch the late-night news, and see the death and destruction of drug abuse that all started with just one little crooked cigarette, we have only us to blame for throwing gas on a fire that is killing our citizens — all in the name of revenue or “medical Science.”

Jack Hatten

Wilmington