DRUG CONVICTIONS

Regarding "No Special Treatment'' (Letters, Oct.15) and "Now, A Real Drug
Challenge'' (Other Views, Oct. 16):

Both of these pieces said that Florida rarely prosecutes users with no
prior criminal record, except as leverage to bring in their dealers. This
is not true. Both also noted that Rush Limbaugh turned himself in for
treatment.

First, Florida Statute 893.135 mandates 25 years (no parole) for the
fraudulent possession of more than 28 grams of oxycodone, hydrocodone,
morphine or heroin, or any mixture thereof. Prosecutors need not have the
drug in evidence to convict, just a witness's word that the defendant
possessed - over time - that quantity of one of those drugs. Limbaugh far
exceeded the 28-gram level if published reports are true.

Second, consider the cases of Richard Paey in Pasco County and Susan Chinn
in Pinellas County. Neither has a criminal record. Both were injured in car
accidents and suffer chronic pain. Both committed prescription fraud to get
more Percocet. Neither one uses pills anymore. (Paey has a prescription
morphine pump; Chinn uses a prescription fentanyl patch.) Since Chinn's
charge involved fewer than 28 grams, she is being threatened with only 15
years; Paey, with 25 years. Under Florida law, both Paey and Chinn are
charged with trafficking, although no evidence of selling is required for
those quantities and none is alleged in either of these two cases.

Third, Limbaugh turned himself in, true, but only after he found his
housekeeper had "outed'' him to law enforcement.

JOHN CHASE, Palm Harbor

The writer is secretary of Unitarian Universalists for Drug Policy Reform.