To the editor:

I was thrilled to see you place Libertarians! Libertarians!
Libertarians! in the No. 114 position of your Best of OC 2,000 Guilty
Pleasures list (Oct. 22).

When I saw the following week that you were listing OC's 31 Scariest People
(Oct. 29), I was hoping to get yet another thrill and see Republicans!
Republicans! Republicans! and Democrats! Democrats! Democrats! But I was
disappointed. I just can't understand how you could leave off those who
condone the arrest, property confiscation and personal incarceration of
sick and dying
people who choose to exercise their rights as granted by the passage
of Proposition 215.

By the way, Nov. 2 was the three-year anniversary of the passage of
the Compassionate Use Act. Three years later, the Democrats and
Republicans in power still say, "So what! Let them pay my contributors
in the prescription-drug lobby . . . er, I mean . . . eat cake!"

RICK ROOT
Westminster

DEAR RICK: We agree, which is why we listed recently retired deputy
district attorney Carl Armbrust as the 14th scariest person in Orange
County. We don't know anything about Armbrust's political affiliations--and
frankly don't care--but we can tell you this: he was individually
responsible for using undercover officers posing as sick patients (complete
with legal-looking doctor's notes) to bust two high-profile members of the
Orange County Patient/ Doctor/Nurse Support Group in the past year. It was
a clearly political act, one designed to undermine Prop. 215. The good
news: a judge recently overturned one of those convictions. Thanks for
giving us the chance to publish the entire sordid story a third time.