ASHCROFT ISN'T GOING AFTER TERRORISTS

In response to Mr. Shapiro, who idolizes Attorney General John Ashcroft so
much:

It is not Mr. Ashcroft's policy on terrorism that frightens me. In fact, I
didn't yet realize that Mr. Ashcroft has a policy on terrorism; he seems
more interested in arresting marijuana smokers than in catching Osama bin
Laden.

His big show at the Superbowl, on which he spent four million tax dollars
in an attempt to convince millions of football fans that marijuana and
terrorism are related, has become a joke.

And a bad one, at that. In Santa Cruz, California, the DEA used human and
financial resources to raid a medicinal marijuana facility that quite
literally houses the sickest of the sick, even after voters approved
Proposition 215 which legalized medicinal marijuana in the state.

One would think that, with the prospect of the U.S. going to war with not
one, but two countries - yes, Virginia, we ARE going to war with Iraq AND
North Korea - at the same time, our attorney general might be too busy to
concern himself primarily with arresting "rave" club and "headshop" owners
simply for catering to the likes of marijuana smokers.

But in fact, that is what he is concentrating on - and that is one of the
things that critics of Mr. Ashcroft will find worthy of criticism every time.

Susan J. Wolfe

Green Bay