FEDS WILL MESS IT UP FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS

For years passionate people over the whole state of Maryland have fought
hard to get the medical marijuana bill as far as it has gotten, but now
that John P. Walters has showed up ("Drug czar blasts marijuana reform,"
March 25) it reminds me of what is going on in California right now.

The majority of the people of California voted and went through all of the
legislative process and passed a medical marijuana bill, but people are
still being arrested by the federal government. We've had people ask where
these people would get the medical marijuana from. California licensed and
regulated suppliers, but the federal government arrested them, too.

I think any kind of medical marijuana bill passed in Maryland is also going
to be useless, but I would like to ask Mr. Walters why is it when a leader
like Saddam Hussein tells his people he doesn't care what they want, and
they are going to do as he says, it is called a dictatorship. But when Mr.
Walters says he doesn't care what the people want, it's called democracy.

ROBERT SPRING

Knoxville