POT SMOKERS NOT TO BLAME

This letter is in response to the column by Matt Okerlund in the Feb.
28 Argus Leader titled "Some bad company to keep." This was the
classic case of someone projecting the qualities they don't like
about themselves onto someone else. In this case, Okerlund was trying
to claim that people who smoke pot are responsible for the violence
in Mexico when it actually is anyone who has supported this immoral
war on drugs for the past 40 years who are responsible for the
violence. They finally are getting what they wanted: a war.

The self-righteous majority who passed a constitutional amendment to
outlaw alcohol finally saw the harm they were doing and had to repeal
the amendment. Now the people who make money on the drug war never
will let drugs be legal again. The money spent by the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration and all the states enforcing these laws
would make these recent bailouts look like petty cash transactions.

Randy E. Ristesund

Sioux Falls