Re: "Smoke screen" (Editorial, Dec. 1):

There you go again! No discussion on whether or not marijuana has any
medicinal value. Just the same old slippery-slope argument that any
softening of drug laws is a back-door effort to legalize them.

The American people are way ahead of the politicians on this issue.
They know that marijuana has medicinal value, and those who can
benefit from it should have access to it under a doctor's supervision.
But Washington bureaucrats and law enforcement officials have done
everything they can to thwart this. They have threatened and bullied
doctors to the point where it's nearly impossible to find one willing
to risk recommending marijuana to a patient.

The war on drugs, which is really a war on drug users, has been a
miserable failure. Even the politicians admit that. Unfortunately,
they are so afraid of appearing soft on crime or "sending the wrong
message to children" that they are unwilling to even consider another
approach.

The people of California recently affirmed that drug abuse should be
treated as a public health problem, and not a criminal matter. No
doubt those who have a vested interest in continuing this war on drug
users will eventually find a way to ignore, or strike down, that law
as well.

I agree with you that we should not do another end run around
Congress. We should let our representatives know that if they are
willing to take the lead in a more rational approach to drugs, we will
support them no matter what party they belong to. Considering the
number of people who are in jail in this country because of the drug
laws, is there any other issue that is more important?

Ken Padgett,
University City