CRIME-FIGHTING PRIORITIES

Re "Pot seizure brings insurance reimbursement," Sept. 3: It's a pleasant
surprise that his insurer compensated 71-year-old Robert DeArkland after
armed men broke in and took the marijuana he used to treat his arthritis
and prostate cancer. Unfortunately, what happened to DeArkland should be
surprising but it isn't. The people who broke down his door were Sacramento
and Placer county sheriffs' deputies. Apparently it's easier to harass old
men who aren't bothering anyone than to deal with dangerous criminals.

Doug Alliston, Fair Oaks

The arrest of DeArkland for lawfully growing medicinal marijuana clearly
demonstrates the contempt of the Sacramento and Placer sheriffs for the
will of the people, who overwhelmingly supported the medical marijuana
initiative, Proposition 215. The terrorist sheriff-bureaucrats who
tormented this ailing old man ignored not only DeArkland's legal rights,
but also their sworn duty to conform to all laws -- even those they
dislike. Like punks who prey on the elderly and infirm, the despicable
conduct of these deputies was so onerous and immoral that mere verbal
condemnation is woefully inadequate. Every "officer" should be fired and
forever banished from employment as law enforcement officers. Their
malevolence is not only disgraceful, but a threat to the rule of law and
the ideals of American democracy.

Stephen Konnoff, Sacramento

Re "The campaign to weed out growers," Sept. 13: Surely the press in
Germany ran similar articles during the prosecution of Germany's "final
solution." See our brave warriors annihilating our evil enemies. "In all,
307 plants were confiscated, bundled up with the growers' equipment and
helicoptered off the hillside. Later, Garcia took the plants to a garbage
hauler to be mulched and mixed with garbage headed for a landfill." While
at it, toss in a couple more bales of our tax money for manpower costs,
fuel and chopper parts wasted on a pile of herbs.

More than just following orders, they are necessarily true believers in
their mission. Schools full of snitches, cafes and bars full of narks,
children ratting off their parents. How many more suspected American dope
fiends will end up dead prior to the conclusion of our Legislature's
timidly proposed three-year study?

Jay Bergstrom, Sacramento

Re "A journey to a really far out cosmos," Names & Faces, Aug. 23: Now we
know that one of the greatest minds of our time, Carl Sagan, smoked
marijuana for "inspiring essays and insight." We also know that tincture of
marijuana was a widely used drug manufactured by Parke-Davis until it was
prohibited by federal law in the 1930s. In their collective wisdom,
informed California voters have chosen to accept marijuana for its known
medical properties. So, will someone please explain, using statistics and
generally accepted scientific methodology, why marijuana is a dangerous
substance that warrants imprisonment?

Richard Tobias, West Sacramento

Cannabis (marijuana is a Mexican slang term adopted by the government in
the 1930s to associate cannabis with negative stereotypes of Hispanic
immigrants) has a history of thousands of years use as a medicinal herb, a
religious sacrament and, yes, as a recreational drug. Looked at
unemotionally, cannabis has much less physiological impact than coffee,
tobacco or alcohol. The worst side-effects are arrest and incarceration.
Regardless of one's personal choices on these matters, the fact remains
that the legitimate cannabis users -- cancer patients, AIDS patients,
people with glaucoma, etc. -- want legal access to something that
experience has proven gives them relief. Who are we to deny them this?

Joe Lev, Sacramento