Bottom line

All of the praise of marijuana's powers to alleviate such a wide variety of ills merely serves as evidence of why the power of the corporate — read pharmaceutical — medical establishment uses its lobbying influence to insure that it will not compete with their products. 

Look to the bottom line. In Australia and some European countries, strains of periwinkle are prescribed as effective cancer-fighters; in this country, however, scores of components of periwinkle have been extracted from their plant source and registered and marketed as cancer-fighting drugs. Not that this approach saves more lives, but it does effectively give monopolies (through patent) to pharmeceutical companies — for much higher prices than you'll see in your local health shop! (Look: The bottom line!)

It's rather like not selling a plate of food to someone who's starving when you've got the only-game-in-town, and can sell them — by the spoonful — enough to keep body and soul together ... till the next payment. 

For some, the top 1 percent, it doesn't get any better! —Bruce Saunders, Detroit

Brain Dwayne

Upon reading you recent article, "Valley of the Doll" (Oct. 26), once again I am astounded at this magazine's obsession with image over substance in Detroit's music scene. I am wondering who Duane the Teenage Weirdo blew to get this article into your paper. First, admitting his ideas are "not executed well," his songs "cheesy," his fan base "small" — then showing some gay bar promo Boy George rip-off pictures makes me wonder who is making music decisions at Metro Times and, secondly, if there is anyone actually in the music scene at all covering it. I am beginning to see why Internet blogs are starting to gain the only legitimacy in this town when writing and reviewing acts, because frankly, reading your paper's music articles is more like reading a band's promo packages instead of actual "in-the-scene" beat writing. Get it together, MT, you just lost another reader. —Lauren Klein, Detroit

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