STOP THE HATCH

Editor -- I am writing regarding Debra Saunders' July 11 column in
which she cites numerous reasons why she does not want Sen. Orrin
Hatch of Utah to run for president.

A March 1999 article in Rolling Stone, ``The Politics of Pot -- A
Government in Denial,'' noted that in the 1970s the American Medical
Association, the American Bar Association and the National Council of
Churches all endorsed the decriminalization of marijuana along with
President Jimmy Carter.

As to Hatch, the article says, ``In October 1977, the Senate Judiciary
Committee voted to decriminalize marijuana. But the committee reversed
its decision a week later, after strenuous objections by Republican
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.''

I don't want a president who not only wants to continue escalating the
war on drugs despite overwhelming evidence that it has failed, but
whose actions have perpetuated harmful policies that now result in the
arrest annually of thousands of our fellow citizens for marijuana possession.

GARY STORCK
Madison, Wis.