Readers Write: The future of the hemp THC industry, veterans, Dick Cheney

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Words cannot express my distress at reading about the future of the use of hemp products in Minnesota (“Deal could kill state’s hemp THC industry,” Nov. 12). What does this have to do with reopening the government? I suffer from postmenopausal migraine headaches, and my main symptom is vomiting (sometimes repeatedly). At the suggestion of my daughter, also a migraine patient, I tried using a THC/CBD beverage and was amazed at the gentle relief with no side effects. The lawmakers who proposed and passed this law, and the citizens who dismiss us as “wanting to get a buzz,” don’t know what they are talking about. Might this be a case for the Supreme Court? States’ rights?

Debra Linnihan, Eden Prairie

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What happened to passing a “clean” bill on federal spending?

It’s not even signed yet, but every day we are hearing about: hidden clauses that would affect Minnesota’s THC market; allowing members of Congress to sue for half a million dollars each for Jan. 6 investigations, etc.

Philip Jacobs, St. Paul

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The loophole found in the 2018 Farm Bill declassified low-level hemp producing THC delta 9 at less than 0.3% concentration by weight. This removed that specific product from the Federal Schedule 1 narcotic ban on THC usage. This allowed a new industry to take shape that is reported to be lucrative but with some regulatory issues. Passage of the current language would remove all hemp derived products from the marketplace. In the piece “Deal could kill state’s hemp THC industry,” we see that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is trying to thread a needle with baling twine. You can’t have it both ways, Ellison. The bill will stop most hemp-derived products from being manufactured, distributed and sold in Minnesota. This has nothing to do with out-of-state sales, sales to minors or an unregulated black market. It corrects the error of the 2018 Farm Bill and would elevate low-level hemp to that of more potent marijuana.

I have a dim view of the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management to correctly monitor anything given the recent track record of state departments. Ellison can dance around his “clarification,” but the proposed language would terminate the hemp/THC industry and Ellison seems to support that.

The entire THC derived marketplace is a dangerous foray into issues involving physiological and psychological problems that are yet to be fully understood. This entire THC issue was rushed for political and revenue-producing favors and now is beginning to pay dividends we don’t need.

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All through the government shutdown, GOP leaders stuck like glue to their droning talking point that legislative issues could only be discussed after the government was reopened, evidenced in this quote from Senate Majority Leader John Thune: “If the Democrats want to talk about subjects unrelated to … getting the government open again, we’re happy to have those conversations ... but that can’t happen until the government gets opened up again.” So, how is it that the Senate bill to reopen the government included language banning hemp products with more than 0.4 milligrams of THC? Are we to believe that THC regulation was central to getting the government open again, but funding Americans’ health care was not?

At best, the GOP’s penchant for repeating party talking points word-for-word shows a humorous, puppetlike lack of original thought on the part of its elected officials. At worst, it is the continuation of a thriving propaganda machine put in place in the 1990s by Newt Gingrich (with assistance from political consultant Frank Luntz) — a machine still running today that banks on elected conservatives toeing the line and voters swallowing their line. Like all propaganda, it works only until the people it aims to control finally realize they are being lied to for the liar’s benefit.

Les Bendtsen, Minneapolis

As a 72-year-old Air Force Vietnam-era veteran, I love to wear my ball cap that identifies me as such. I truly enjoy having folks come up to thank me for my service. It’s a far cry from my experiences in the mid-1970s when my uniform drew cries of derision along with physical actions such as spitting and receiving the one-finger salute.

Michael Achartz, Inver Grove Heights

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Eight thousand, three hundred and one fallen American soldiers are buried in the American Cemetery in Margraten, the Netherlands. One hundred and seventy-four of those soldiers are Black.

Something that makes Margraten special is its “Grave Adoption Program.” Locals and others may “adopt” a grave to keep the memory of a soldier alive by visiting and placing flowers. All of the graves have been “adopted,” and there is a waiting list. Adopters, who may care for a maximum of two graves, regularly visit and place flowers. It is not uncommon for the “adoption” of an American grave to pass from one generation of a Dutch family to the next.

Recently, Dutch adopters became aware of something different in the visitor center. In mid-2024 for the first time there had been interpretive panels commemorating Black soldiers. Now, barely a year later, sometime in 2025, those panels have disappeared. Official explanation: They are off display. A local Dutch official has been appealing to the U.S. ambassador to return those panels to the display. His comment: “They fought for a freedom that they did not have for themselves.”

David Hauschild, Blaine

As people eulogize former Vice President Dick Cheney, let’s not forget his true legacy. It was he, along with Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld, who convinced then-President George Bush to invade Iraq in 2003 under false pretenses. The consequences of that unnecessary war were not only the deaths of over 4,000 American troops and 300,000 Iraqi soldiers and citizens, but the fallout of the war strengthened Iran, helped to bring about the creation of ISIS and further destabilized Syria. It also cost American taxpayers an estimated $1.7 trillion. Even today, the Middle East is still in chaos brought about in part by the Cheney/Bush deceitful and ill-advised war. The Cheney legacy is not one to be celebrated.