ILLEGAL, BUT EASY TO GET

Stan White ["Maligned Marijuana," letters, Sept. 20] asked how long
the Drug Enforcement Administration can keep marijuana away from Americans.

I dispute the notion that the agency is keeping marijuana from many citizens.

Save for the persistent efforts to place obstacles between patients
and their medical marijuana, the millions of Americans who want
marijuana don't have much trouble getting it.

Nor do users of other illicit drugs, despite decades of
ever-escalating drug war policies carried out by the DEA.

This leads to a corollary to the question regarding medical marijuana
that Mr. White posed:

How long are we as taxpayers going to fund a federal agency that has
proven itself incapable of fulfilling its primary mission -- that of
significantly reducing either the demand for or supply of illegal drugs?

Stephen Heath

Public Relations Director

Drug Policy Forum of Florida

Clearwater, Fla.