After reading Eric Uthus's column, "'Bong Hits' scatters blame," published July 4, I found it insulting that Joseph Frederick had his free speech rights trampled upon.

The components of Frederick's ordeal are as follows: the Bible, cannabis, free speech and prohibition.

I know little about the Bible, but I do know that passages within it refer to cannabis. The medicinal uses of pot were known well before the time of Jesus.

If you can prove Jesus never used cannabis I'll jump off the edge of this flat Earth.

Cannabis has about 50 medicinal and 50,000 industrial uses. Legal and cultivated, its benefit to the planet would be nearly incalculable.

It can be grown without chemicals, restores depleted soil, produces the plant kingdom's highest quality fiber and protein and much more.

Prohibition is the fool's errand of people addicted to instilling goodness by force; their pathology stains the canvas of our collective portrait.

BRUCE CODERE