BILLBOARDS PROMOTE DRUG POLICY REFORM

Buzzed;
It was interesting to see your brief piece on the "Legalize Drugs"
billboard (Buzz, March 9). What was especially interesting was that
Eller Media, a large outdoor-advertising company, chose to stand firm
on our country's First Amendment pillar of free speech.

We are all better off with open discussion of these important issues,
and Eller should be congratulated for its courage and leadership. Our
organization, Change the Climate Inc. (www.changetheclimate.org) is a
group of parents and marketing professionals who are using advertising
to "change the climate" around marijuana. We are disturbed that
taxpayer-funded ads deceive our children about marijuana by linking it
to heroin.

We are equally concerned that baby-boomer politicians are arresting
and jailing our children in record numbers for experimenting with
marijuana -- what a waste of resources, not to mention the huge danger
to kids who end up in jail. As parents, we want our children to be
safe, and as businesspeople we want to stop paying for government
invasion in people's personal lives.

As for the Dallas billboard -- it would not be the message we would
choose, but it is among the first of many outdoor and
public-transportation ads to come. Joseph White Change the Climate
Inc.

Rick D. Day
Spokesman, AADW
Former Founding Director, North TX DPFT
Member, NORML