OUTSIDE FUNDING HELPS LEVEL FIELD IN POT ISSUE

Editor, the Tribune:

No one can argue with Tony Messenger's desire for "a fair fight," should
Columbia police officers succeed in qualifying a ballot measure to
reinstitute harsh penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
But Messenger mistakenly equates the use of private, voluntary donations
with the coercive use of tax dollars to tell local voters what to do.

Local organizers such as supporters of Columbia's recent reforms start
out at a huge disadvantage: They have to raise voluntary donations,
while the federal government uses its unlimited supply of tax dollars
- - including $1 billion worth of TV ads in the past five years - to
frighten people into opposing common-sense reforms. To treat the
Marijuana Policy Project's small efforts to level the playing field
through grants to local activist groups as if they are equivalent to
this massive, tax-funded juggernaut is absurd.

Now, the people of Columbia face the prospect of police officers
showing up at their homes to ask for their signatures to change a law
that some cops apparently don't like. Such a tactic is inherently
coercive and should scare the pants off of anyone who values democracy.

Bruce Mirken, director of communications

Marijuana Policy Project

P.O. Box 77492, Washington, D.C.