DON'T OVERLOOK UNDERLYING CAUSE

Editor,

While I agree with your recent editorial ("Prosecutor's report clears
police of any wrongdoing," Jan. 9) that Tom Crosslin and Roland Rohm were
ultimately to blame for their own deaths by the fact that they pointed
loaded weapons at police officers during a tense situation, we must not
overlook the underlying cause of the tragedy: that police, politicians and
the public continue to cast marijuana smokers as criminals and dangers to
society. The fact is, most marijuana smokers are decent, hard-working,
tax-paying citizens who want nothing more than to be left alone.

If citizens actually had the right to privacy and the right to be secure in
our homes, as provided for in our Constitution, police would have no more
right to invade a marijuana smoker's home as they do a beer drinker's or a
cigarette smoker's.

Arthur Cole

Hope Valley, R.I.