DON'T LET GOVERNMENT STEAL OUR BIRTHRIGHT

The Supreme Court's medical marijuana decision underscores the painful
reality that drug prohibition must necessarily damage our form of
government in its attempt to protect people from themselves. Thank you
for noticing.

This realization mobilized many of the opponents of alcohol
prohibition in the 1920s. A passage from David Kyvigms lRepealing
National Prohibitionn is appropriate here.

At an organizational meeting in Detroit, a businessman
said:

"The people are not very much interested in the question of wet and
dry, but they are very much interested in the question of the form of
government under which they shall live. They realize that Prohibition
is not a real disease, but merely a symptom of a very great and
deep-seated disease - the disease of . . . centralization of
government from Washington . . . that extends now into our home and to
the dinner table."

Whether it be prohibition of alcohol or marijuana or chainsaws, the
result is the same. In the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,
our lawmakers have decided that freedom s what we proudly call our
most precious birthright s has become too dangerous to pass on to our
children.

BOB RAMSEY

Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Irving