UNINTENDED RESULTS OF FOOLISH DRUG WAR

Regarding a Nov. 1 article, Dave Reshan of McFarland puts an
all-too-familiar face to unintended consequences.

I certainly don't suggest that punching holes in a child's basketball
is a good first response to an irritating situation. And I don't
suggest that Reshan's irritation was without cause. Yet he admitting
his mistake and offered to replace the basketball. Bothered that
Reshan would not answer the door, Donald Boettcher, the girl's father,
called the police.

Reshan chose a medicine supported by thousands of years of validation.
Cannabis eased his back and jaw pain without addictive and sometimes
harsh side effects of pharmaceutical drugs. He said he did not want to
fuel the drug cartels, so he grew five cannabis plants to produce his
own medicine. There was no evidence that he sold it.

Police involvement produced a predictable outcome. Reshan was evicted
from his trailer park, where he had lived 13 years without incident,
and forced to plea to a lesser of multiple unproven charges resulting
in probation. All of this at taxpayer expense without evidence that a
real crime had been committed.

But the drug war worked! Reshan is no longer allowed to use his
medicine, and the Boettchers highlight the unintended consequences of
using police to settle minor disagreements. And the madness continues.

Bruce Rideout, Madison