FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS COMPASSIONATE DRUG LAWS

Emily Groff's excellent article, "War on Drugs Inadequate" (Sept. 29),
was dead-on in its assessment of the federal government's misguided
focus on marijuana.

But if it is misguided to focus resources on nonviolent marijuana
users, then it is downright cruel to arrest and imprison seriously ill
people who use marijuana to treat medical conditions.

Even though 10 states have passed medical marijuana laws - and the
Connecticut Senate passed a medical marijuana bill in June - the White
House has declared medical marijuana "dead" as a political issue and
actively campaigns against all efforts to write compassion into this
country's marijuana laws.

It's time to take the sick and wounded off the battlefield of the war
on drugs.

Krissy Oechslin