RAPS TASK FORCE

To The Editor:

I am writing in regards to Mr. Kelly's Oct 12 story, "Pot should be
removed."

The St. Lawrence County's Drug Task Force claimed that the recent
60-70,000 plant seizure was a major win in the county's war on drugs
policy, and the Pro-Smokers group claims that it was wild hemp that
wouldn't give anyone much of a buzz. They say that it was just the
agencies way off making themselves look good in the public eye.

Mr. Kelly believes that leaving the crop there would " simply allow
pot growers to plant their own among the wild hemp crop if they knew
the deputies wouldn't be back."

Now I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea here, and I apologize if
anyone gets offended because I take no sides in this so-called Drug
War, but this is my view on the situation.

I do strongly believe that someone in the S.L.C.D.T.F. lied to the
public and that at least one or two of those deputies knew that the
unusually large crop they "found" was not what they claimed it to be.
First of all, common sense should have told them that it would have
taken a small army to plant and take care of that many plants. I'm
sure someone would have noticed some of these people sneaking around
in the woods with their watering cans and gardening tools, but for
some reason no one was ever seen. Maybe they were just wearing really
good camouflage all these years.

It's a well known fact that this wild hemp has been growing in that
area, as well as other areas in the county, for years.

As for Mr. Kelly's opinion I realize that a man of his stature
wouldn't be expected to know anything about the growing process of
marijuana but according to " High Times Magazine," it would be
senseless to grow any type of high quality stuff among wild hemp
because it would spoil or contaminate the good stuff. I just thought
that as head of a newspaper he would have done more research on the
subject before putting his opinion in print.

To the Pro-Smokers Groups, of course it's obvious that some members of
the S.L.C.D.T.F. knew that the crop wasn't the real thing, (they
probably thought they could get away with it) but it's not right to
blame the entire task force. A lot of these guys are just doing their
jobs. It's just a shame that all those thousands of dollars were
wasted on digging up worthless weeds, when it could have been used for
something like getting bills passed to give child molesters and sex
offenders " real prison sentences." The reason I say this is I've read
numerous times where people get more time for selling or growing
marijuana than for molesting children, what's wrong here?

On and end note, I have never been a law enforcement fan, but I do
acknowledge the fact that's it not the police officers who make the
laws that give marijuana advocates life sentences and child molesters
second chances, it's the politicians, and judges. But that's another
story.

Danny J. Mashaw