REFORM DRUG LAWS

This is in response to Mr. Hosmer's letter ("New drug policy," March
24).

I, too, am an avid activist for drug policy reform. The toughest part
of reform is to convince enough of the approximately 65 million
interested parties that they need to stand and be counted. Each day
many are arrested, charged and convicted of various nonviolent drug
crimes but still refuse to jump on the reform bandwagon, acquiescing
to having their civil rights stripped from them. I believe this is yet
another method the government uses to disenfranchise voters and expand
gun control.

I also believe the powers that be consider the drug war a source of
revenue. Many drug offenders are not incarcerated but are put in "the
system" as probationers and forced to pay probation fees for as long
as they're on probation.

I often wonder how it would impact the drug war if just marijuana were
legalized. The prison population would shrink; correctional officers,
probation officers, drug counselors, etc. would be laid off.

Wouldn't that be awful? Not really. Then marijuana could be controlled
and taxed like alcohol, creating a whole new source of revenue.

Yes, I am sick of seeing otherwise law-abiding citizens turned into
criminals for something they choose to do as consenting adults in
their own homes.

DENNIS NAYERT

Crestview