Reader's View:

DRUG PARAPHERNALIA

I am writing in response to the recent, so-called "drug paraphernalia"
raids on the stores in Pocatello, Burley, Twin Falls and Boise. These
stores were entered at gunpoint, managers and owners arrested, computers
confiscated and merchandise taken. Thankfully, no shots were fired.

These stores all had proper business licenses/permits, and the merchandise
was displayed where everyone could see it. They had been doing business
this way for years. The owners of these stores must have felt they were
following the rules and not breaking Idaho law. They paid taxes and the
government was gladly accepting those funds.

If there was an issue, why didn't the DEA agents let the store owners know
that certain products were illegal when they visited the stores the first
time? Most likely the products would have been removed and this would have
been a non-issue. The federal government wouldn't have wasted taxpayers'
money and created undue hardship for these stores. After all, it is the
small businesses that keep people employed, and the economy going,
especially during times of economic recession.

The new Department of Homeland Security orchestrated this so-called
crackdown on drug paraphernalia. This is a new federal department created
by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon.

The mission of this department is to reduce the nation's vulnerability to
acts of terrorism by protecting our critical infrastructures and key assets
from physical attacks. The department's objective is to identify and assure
the protection of those infrastructures and assets that we deem most
critical. How is the merchandise sold in these stores related to terrorism?

Are we losing our constitutional rights under measures in the Homeland
Security Act? Are the protection of individual rights in the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights just annoying obstacles to this administration's
quest for absolute control of the population, wrapped in the guise of the
"war on terrorism?"

Dana Olson-Elle, Pocatello