SICKENING PROOF

Tara Roberson's article Nov. 23 about a Stillwater policeman who
killed a Logan County man in the cause of marijuana prohibition is
again sickening proof that the war on drugs is worse than use of any
drug, legal or illegal. According to the article, the SWAT team left
with one and one-half pounds of marijuana in exchange for one human
life.

We fail to see that these raids constitute an expensive, hypocritical
enforcement of marijuana prohibition. They are paid for with taxes
that could well be spent on something better.

An attendant article in the same issue describes still another drug
taskforce raid, this time on a suspected bathtub meth lab in Cushing.

Raids on bathtub meth labs are the consequence of prohibition. Ending
it with controls and regulation would greatly reduce the harm as did
repeal of alcohol prohibition in the 1930s.

We need to stop the senseless killing of policemen, suspects,
innocents and children caught in the crossfire.

Pharmacologically, marijuana can't kill, but its illegality often
kills in shootouts with the police. Albert Einstein said, "The world
will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same
thinking that created the situation."

Ron du Bois

Stillwater