ROSEVILLE WOMAN PARDONED OF PAST DRUG CONVICTION

MINNEAPOLIS - A Roseville woman who turned her life around after a
drug conviction 28 years ago has now received a presidential pardon
for her past crime.

Karen Edmonson began using drugs at age 11 and was a convicted drug
dealer by 21. Now, the 49-year-old has a master's degree and has
spent the past 20 years working on social issues, particularly addiction.

On Wednesday, she celebrated after President Bush officially forgave
her crime 28 years ago. The pardon was one of 82 pardons and commuted
sentences Bush has awarded.

"I felt like I had taken what was really an insane lifestyle, the
bottom of life itself ... and made a decision that I wasn't going to
be in a revolving door in and out of that system for the rest of my
life," she said.

Pardons, a constitutional prerogative of the president, have been
rare in Bush's five-plus years. Since 1900, his father, one-term
President George H.W. Bush, has been the only president to pardon
fewer people, with 77. President Bill Clinton pardoned 178 in his
first seven years in office and 218 in his final year.

Edmonson said she applied for the pardon in 2001 because she wanted
to be recognized as an asset to society. The pardon was issued Tuesday.

She said she is a Bush supporter but supports abortion rights and
hasn't contributed to the Bush campaigns.

White House spokesman Alex Conant said Edmonson "has repaid her debt
to society by becoming an active citizen and making positive
contributions to her community."

Edmonson said she began using alcohol and marijuana at age 11 when
she was living in New York. She soon began using Quaaludes,
barbiturates, LSD, heroine, methadone and methamphetamine.

She moved to Minnesota when she was 16, and in the late 1970s she was
caught dealing meth in St. Paul. She was sentenced to 18 months in
prison but served a year and got clean - only to relapse into alcohol
and cocaine use.

"When I started thinking about dealing, I thought, 'That's it, man,
you're going to lockup,'" she said.

She has been clean for 20 years, has a master's degree and is a
licensed psychologist, social worker, and alcohol and drug counselor.
She ran a program at the University of Minnesota that focused on
people with multiple addictions in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

She and her husband, Norm Skog, a recovering alcoholic who has been
clean for 21 years, run a business called Amedco, which helps people
get medical and mental health classes they teach accredited.

"(The pardon) truly is recognition of how she's been living her
life," said Skog.