LUNGREN'S LAW

Editor In old Byzantium, by law the color purple was reserved for the
royal family; and any dealer in fabrics, the dyer, retailer or the consumer
who broke this sumptuary law could have his or her head chopped off.

This was not the beginning of sumptuary law, but it's a good starting point
to illustrate the unbroken line between the Byzantine rulers and state
Attorney General Dan Lungren.

It isn't a straight line, for the practice of sumptuary prohibition has
existed over millennia and in all parts of the planet. Since long before
people began to record their lives and times, there have been those who
would tell others what they could wear, what they could eat and drink, what
they could inhale. People such as Nero and Hadrian, Oliver Cromwell, Joseph
Stalin and Orrin Hatch, along with scores of popes and Pentecostal
preachers have tried to impose their wills and opinions upon others. And it
hasn't stopped.

Dan Lungren's promise or threat to close down the voter sanctioned medical
marijuana outlets in California is only his latest. The man has absolutely
no understanding of, or sympathy for democratic principles and ideas.
Reason and expert medical knowledge has no effect upon his determination to
impose his sumptuary restrictions upon those he intends to rule.

This man wants to be governor?

W. R. JACKSON
San Francisco


THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN

Editor The Legislature tried, twice, to pass a law for medical
marijuana. Twice, Republican Governor Pete Wilson vetoed it. If the
Legislature fails the peo ple, the people will take the matter into their
own hands. The result is Proposition 215. The people have spoken. Attorney
General (and gubernatorial hopeful) Dan Lungren should listen.

JAMES HAMMETT
Austin, Texas