FAILED DRUG WAR

To The Editor:

I would like to respond to Kelly"s Comments in the Oct. 31 Advance
News. Mr. Kelly's comment "Legislators Ignoring Sheriff" states that
pro-drug people are influencing St.Lawrence County Legislators to not
fund the sheriffs recommendation for another narcotics officer and
dog. Mr. Kelly, if you are alluding to ReconsiDer as being the reason
why the legislators are ignoring the sheriff, we are not. Actually,
ReconsiDer has had very little contact with them. It is quite
possible the legislators have drawn their own conclusions from media
reports that show the drug war as a dismal failure. Maybe they see
how our jails and prisons are being filled with low-level drug
offenders who often receive harsh sentences of 15 years to life while
child molesters for example, receive a year or two for ruining a
child's life. Finally, Mr. Kelly's description of us as pro-drug
people is completely false. We think of ourselves as a pro-freedom
group. The common bond of ReconsiDer is that every member genuinely
feels that the government's war on drugs has seriously infringed on
the Bill of Rights and our personal lives.

Lee Monnet
Ogdensburg, New York