GRAMNET WRONG

What is going on? I read the related articles in the Dec. 7 and Dec. 9
Steamboat Today about the drug raid and subsequent court actions involving
Don Nord and GRAMNET. What a fiasco.

I have wondered for years what this bunch was doing. This is an all-time
low. I assume after reading the list of 280 registered marijuana users in
Colorado and finding one of these heinous felons right here in Routt County,
they felt compelled to act. I picture them putting on their Ninja Turtle
gear and getting pumped up. "We've got to go get him," they cry. All the way
to Hayden they are getting psyched for the job at hand. Crashing into Nord's
place they must make a fearful sight.

What a travesty. What injustice. What a waste of taxpayer's money. How much
time will be spent in court on this hooey?

I think the problem may have started when they got their handle -- GRAMNET.
Why not a loftier goal? They should have adopted a more inspiring name.
Something like KILONET. That way they could set their sights a bit higher. I
am sure with a government-funded study they could come up with a name to
match the acronym. This name would give these guys a better goal in life.
Instead of hanging out in bars and busting the occasional stupid kid with a
quarter ounce of pot, they could aspire to catch real drug dealers. When was
the last big take down in any of the counties involved in this operation? I
want to read a headline "two kilograms of cocaine (or heroin or meth or you
name it) seized in raid." Who is this Deputy District Attorney Marc
Guerette? When asked by the judge why he filed (obviously mistakenly) the
charges against Nord in state court, he replied that he wasn't sure. Thank
God they didn't have a real drug dealer in hand.

Let's throw the federal government's stooges out of the state of Colorado
and have our own law enforcement officers enforce our people's mandated
laws. If medical marijuana was OK'd by the people of Colorado in 2000, how
can something like this be happening?

Sorry if I seem a bit over the edge here, but I have known Don "Doc" Nord
for more than 20 years. Nord is accurately portrayed in the Steamboat Today
paper articles. He is one of the good guys. It makes me furious to see this
kind of thing happen to him. He doesn't need it. I see this kind of stupid
action all the time, but rarely does it involve someone I know.

Makes you wonder.

Paul Wellman

Steamboat Springs