STORY ON ALASKAN INITIATIVE READS MORE LIKE AN EDITORIAL

Editor, The Times:

Re: The Sept. 25 article titled "High hopes in Alaska for sweeping pot law"
by your reporter, Stuart Eskenazi. My main trouble regarding this article is
that I believe it was placed in the wrong section of the paper. The article,
though in the main section of The Times usually reserved for the unbiased
relaying of information, reads very much like an editorial. In the very
first paragraph, Eskenazi writes that supporters of the initiative will
"stare you down with their glassy eyes."

Is he trying to tell us that everyone supporting the initiative is
perpetually stoned? If we had any doubts about this, he certainly makes his
opinion very clear as he refers to them repeatedly with the ever-unbiased
term, "potheads." He probably regards all alcohol proponents as "drunks" as
well. What he thinks about this issue is irrelevant.

I look to The Times for objective and informative writing, not patronizing
essays pooh-poohing those in search of different solutions rather than
continuing this abysmal "war on drugs."

Jon Farmer, Seattle