PRIGS, POT AND POWER

Kudos to Cherry Wong for her commentary on "Pot, Police, and Prostitues"
(4/15). However, her concluding paragraph, even though accurate, misses the
bigger point.

She said, "By keeping prostitution illegal in most of this country, it's
giving the message that Americans don't have the individual common sense to
choose what's right or wrong for them."

What that really means is that the santimonious prigs who make the law want
to keep their power. Power means job security, deferential treatment, and
command of resources. Who wants to lose that?

Because drug and sex laws are so often ignored by the citizenry, police have
a free fire zone to pick out whomever they like for targeting. Is it any
wonder that racial and ethnic minorities take the brunt of it?

Gerald M. Sutliff, Emeryville, CA