OFFICER CANDIDATES' PAST DRUG USE

Your article correctly points out that almost 600,000 people were arrested
in 1998 for simple possession of marijuana and are subject to a range of
penalties including the loss of a driver's license, loss of financial aid
for students, deportation of legal and illegal immigrants and imprisonment
for up to life. And who is arresting those 600,000 marijuana smokers? Why,
cops who used to smoke marijuana!

What better illustration do we need that this insane war on drugs is really
a war on ourselves and our civil liberties? If you can smoke pot and still
be a responsible policeman, or speaker of the House, or vice president, or
president, or presidential candidate, then how can we justify the wasted
expense and ruined lives of our drug policies?

The question I want to ask cops and politicians, for that matter, is not
"Have you ever smoked marijuana?" The better question is, "Since you smoked
marijuana and know firsthand that it didn't harm you or all your friends
who also experimented with it, how can you justify our draconian drug
laws?"

Reilly Pollard
Goleta