PROHIBITION REVISITED

Possession of marijuana charges dropped on Parker K. Stafford, 20, son of
state Sen. Ronald B. Stafford, R-Plattsburgh, clearly indicates that some
people in the criminal justice system do not feel that marijuana is a
serious crime! (Senator Stafford's Son Got a 'Fair Deal' With DWI
Reduction, Assistant DA Says, Sunday 21 May 2000 )

The article quickly gets away from the possession of marijuana and goes on
endlessly about the legal drug of alcohol.

Does this mean the 20 or so possession of marijuana charges that have been
lodged on people since his arrest , will be dropped too! Some of those
charges stem from just "routine" traffic stops.

Mr. Stafford can count his blessings, others in St. Lawrence County have
lost their jobs, their homes, and endured hardships over possession of
marijuana charges.

I would like to compliment staff writer James R. Donnelly of the Watertown
Daily Times for his professionalism in reporting court cases involving
illegal drugs. Some reporters, for some reason, do not report the complete
picture on the issue.

It is a serious issue, If you take the financial figures in the Bureau of
Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice and put them with the
statistics for illegal drug arrest, increase budgets, increase man power in
St. Lawrence County over the past 20 years. It would be well over a billion
dollars of tax payers money spent. And there is no sign of the cost getting
lower or that illegal drug use is slowing down.

Prohibition all over again!

Larry Seguin
Lisbon, New York