TRANSFER THE AGENTS

I read that many DEA agents were pulled off their task of watching
the sick going in and out of West Coast medical marijuana buyers
clubs last week and rushed to take part in the terrorist
investigation.

To help secure our travel safety, sky marshals now have to be found,
then, after FBI background checks are conducted, trained and put on
our commercial airlines - a task that will take many months if new
persons are hired. But already qualified DEA, FBI and other federal
agents busy watching or busting marijuana users could be moved
quickly, with the same pay and status, to permanent anti-terrorist
jobs, including being sky marshals.

Let us ask our elected officials to use these well-qualified
personnel against what is now clearly the greatest threat. If the $40
billion a year being wasted at all levels of government in this
neverending war on drugs had been - and could easily now be -
invested in making us all more secure from real threats, we may well
not have been caught off guard.

It is past time for our leaders to get the priorities in order.

BUSTER JONES, Albany, Ga.