DRUGS, LEGAL AND ILLEGAL

Letter writer Gary Storck (7/22/05) provides interesting personal insight
about Ald. Zach Brandon. Whether Mr. Brandon's lack of support for a
statewide law permitting legal access to medical marijuana makes him a
quasi-typical Democrat or a Republican in disguise may be a matter of
partisan opinion. But we can be sure of one thing from Mr. Brandon's
response to medical patients who may elect to use marijuana with a doctor's
recommendation in preference to heavy-duty and often addictive pharmacueticals.

That is, Mr. Brandon believes that arrest, criminal prosecution, time in a
prison cage and lifetime criminal record are an appropriate public response
to those patients who choose to medicate with anything other than
government-approved narcotics. And that's a sad position for a leader of
any political party to take.

Stephen Heath

Public relations director

Drug Policy Forum of Florida

Clearwater, Fla.