DEATH AND NO GLORY

American drug policy is a strange and seedy case [re: "The Strange
Seedy Case of Marc Emery, Canadian," Sept. 22]! Drugs kill over 26
percent of the people who die each year in the U.S. Tobacco, alcohol,
pharmaceuticals kill about a quarter of us. Less than 1 percent die
from all illicit drug use, none, nada, no deaths are attributed to
marijuana. Obviously, we are all safer to grow natural herb gardens.

War is a tool governments use to make us more agreeable to their waste
of our precious lives and resources. War creates a booming economy for
some on the suffering of many. This is a lot bigger deal than sex in
the Oval Office - the racism, corruption, and uncaring destruction of
lives to make a buck or feed an addiction to power. In our name, they
have sent our brave troops to die for oil; they have taken money away
from disaster preparedness for oil; they have shamed, destroyed
families, locked up, and killed many (including members of
enforcement) over a choice in a recreational/medicinal drug.

It is obvious our policies are more about profit than the well-being
of the individual. Compare costs of our medical care to our neighbors
in Canada and Mexico. Leaders responsible for current policy will have
to answer to a higher power for their crimes against humanity.

Colleen Minter aka Bonnie Colleen McCool

Stephenville, Texas