EARTH WEEK AND 4/20

Dear Editor,

Last week was Earth Week at Drexel, and it was nice to see an
initiative for environmental protection that involved individuals
rather than government intervention. Drexel Green sponsored many
initiatives, including reducing use of bottled water, recycling
plastic bags, cleaning up the campus, using electricity wisely and
many other topics of interest. Comparing individual contributions to
protection of the environment to government intervention makes sense.
The government owns about 40 percent of the United States' land mass
- - which has been left polluted by the negligent Department of Energy
and Defense and the U.S. Military. While not cleaning up its own
property, the government continues to spend millions of tax dollars
on regulation after regulation against the citizens.

Also, in celebration of last week's 4/20, a few facts on the war on
drugs: 1,841,182 drugs arrests were made in America in 2007. If every
American who has used illegal drugs was put in jail, 30 to 40 million
people would be arrested, equaling the combined population of
California, Arizona and New Mexico. The cost to jail these users
would equal between $10 to $15 trillion. It costs, on average,
$450,000 to put a drug dealer in jail. The budget would save $37
billion if drugs were legalized in America.

California is already looking into the legalization of marijuana to
help boost its suffering economy. Perhaps legalization would
stimulate the economy much more effectively than creating money out
of thin air. Even though the government is considering taxing
marijuana, if legalized, it would be a step toward freedom, dissolve
the power to make useless arrests and energize the economy.

Stacy Litz

Sophomore, Political Science