HIGH ON HYPOCRISY

(Re: "DEA hits the fundraising trail," news briefs, Aug. 31.) In the
past five years, the DEA has spent billions of dollars in
Afghanistan. Yet, this has predictably resulted in more opium
blooming there than ever before, punctuated by this year's record
harvest of 62,000 metric tons.

Now, this is the same clownish DEA that's nervily interfering in
Colorado's own electoral debate over Amendment 44, which would
"legalize" small amounts of cannabis for personal use.

Surely, the feckless drug agency can't be taken seriously when its
own website concedes that, despite nearly 70 years of harsh
prohibition, cannabis is still quite "readily available" throughout
every jurisdiction in the nation and that fully half our nation's
high school graduates happily admit that they've inhaled.

This is a risible policy failure, considering that the DEA spends
many more resources on domestic pot eradication than it does in
regard to Afghanistan's opium fields. A vote in favor of Amendment 44
will hopefully send a much-needed message to our seemingly tone-deaf
political leadership.

Cord MacGuire

Boulder