AT WAR WITH US: CONGRESS, PUBLIC NEED TO REIN IN OVERZEALOUS DRUG WARRIORS

"Liberal laws worry drug czar" read the State Journal headline Monday. It
appeared over comments by White House drug policy chief and Lansing native
John Walters fretting about liberalized laws on marijuana.

He should worry more about overzealous federal agents harassing the ill and
wasting taxpayers' money.

Earlier this month, Drug Enforcement Administration agents "busted" a
California co-op that provides medical marijuana to seriously ill people.
It is one of eight recent such raids. In a USA Today report, one of the
Santa Cruz users detailed how officers would not let her sit down even
though she has polio and refused to call her an ambulance when her blood
pressure spiked.

DEA Director Asa Hutchinson, Walters' colleague in the nation's "War on
Drugs," defended the raid as appropriate enforcement of federal drug laws.
Never mind that the people of California freely voted to allow medicinal
use of marijuana and that the co-op in question was operating in
consultation with state and local law officers.

Nope, on drugs, the feds say they know best. The facts don't support that
view, though.

America is involved in a real war - against global terrorism.

The federal government has said there probably are sleeper terrorist cells
that it can't find here. Our border security remains haphazard. And let's
not even talk about what's going on in the nation's airports.

Yet, our public servants in Washington believe it's essential to be
harassing sick people for smoking pot?

These folks aren't politically clueless. They've seen the growing support
for medical marijuana. That's why the new spin from Washington - shown in
public service ads - is that drug users finance terrorists.

Funny how they never seemed to mention that before Sept. 11, 2001.

The drug warriors need a reality check from Congress, from the voters, from
somebody.