SSDP MISSING THE BIG PICTURE

To the Cigar,

I've held off on writing this letter for quite some time, but after reading
Tom Angell's article in the Oct. 7 edition of the Cigar, I felt the need to
respond.

Angell's article is just one of a handful of articles and letters in the
last few weeks that have expressed the "misguided" ways of United States
drug policies. Angell elaborated that he is saddened and enraged by people
who believe, apparently incorrectly, that drug reformers are fighting for
their right to get high.

I fully support Students for Sensible Drug Policy's stance that drug policy
in America is in need of serious reform; drug policy lacks direction and
seriously mismanages money. This is not uncommon of government programs,
however.

The problem with SSDP's stance is that they frequently maintain that drug
policy itself is unfair. Drug policy isn't wrong; it's just in need of
repair. If your only education on the issue were articles by SSDP members,
though, you'd probably think drug policy needs to be eliminated completely.

This brings me back to Angell's article. Many of the injustices he points
out in his article are very valid and very true, and I fully agree that the
US government needs to reevaluate how it attempts to control the drug
problem in America. At no point, however, does Angell, or any member of the
SSDP for that matter, acknowledge that there is indeed a drug problem in
America. This is why I, along with so many others, feel that drug reformers
truly are just fighting for their right to get high.

It's nice to sugar coat it with talk of making society better.
Unfortunately, the reason why most people get involved in drug reform isn't
to make society better, but to fight for the right to smoke up. This is
evidenced by the many letters to the editor that maintain that smoking pot
is not a crime, or at least that it shouldn't be. Those truly concerned with
social reform have many other options available to them that don't support
illegal drug users.

What I find even more appalling then the potheads who bitch constantly about
how marijuana is illegal is that the Cigar allows its writers to submit
articles that are slanted by personal interest. Tom Angell, for example, was
president of SSDP last year. By allowing Angell to write an article about
drug reform, the Cigar is illustrating their support in the interests of
their writers over the right of the readers to unbiased articles. This was
perhaps even more true in last year's senate election, in which the Cigar
unarguably supported Jesse Whissit-Lynch, also a Cigar writer.

After continually being let down by the Cigar's lack of journalistic
integrity, I would rather wipe my ass and stare at the toilet paper then
read another issue of the Cigar.

Chris Ferdinandi

Editor's note: The Cigar's editorial policy states that Op-Ed columns do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of The Cigar's staff members, they are
simply the opinions of the individual authors. Also, Jesse Whissit-Lynch was
not a Cigar columnist at the time of his endorsement by the paper.