'CRACK TAX' MAKES_STATE LAUGHINGSTOCK

I just finished reading an article in the News Sentinel about this
so-called "crack tax." Is this real? I sent the absurd article to many
friends who I thought might need a good laugh, and many responded asking if
this was some kind of joke.

After reading over it again, the humor that I found in it the first time
changed to anger. This is what my tax dollars are paying for? A program
based on voluntary drug taxes?

It's becoming more and more evident that the government is failing its
citizens.

Has our state government done such a poor job at managing our tax dollars
that we are relying on drug users and dealers to voluntarily pay taxes on them?

This is an all-time low for our state. I'm ashamed of the job you are
doing, and you should be, too.

I once heard of a so-called war on drugs where we tried to prevent the use
and selling of drugs.

This war on drugs was for social benefit to protect the citizens from the
dangers of drugs, but I see now that it's not the citizens you are worried
about - it's the money. The war on drugs was just a war on personal freedom.

I'm ashamed to be from the county that Sen. Randy McNally represents, and I
assure him that next election he will have lost many votes because of this
- - not because of the tax itself but because of the misuse of funds that has
caused the Legislature to reach out in any way possible to regain that money.

We as citizens still have power, and the only way for that to be taken away
is to sit back and do nothing.

MATTHEW OOTEN

Knoxville