RECONSIDER DRUG SENTENCING

In recent days, our U.S. War on Some Drugs has shown some interesting results.

A father in California faces four to five years in prison because his child
took less than one-tenth gram of cannabis to school. An Alabama high school
boy received a 26-year prison sentence for selling cannabis to schoolmates.
A California care provider for medical cannabis was convicted in federal
court without a fair trial. The judge would not let him provide a defense,
and the jurors are saying they were duped.

So a child will go fatherless for five years, a young man will lose his
youth and probably learn the ways of violent prisoners, and the courts are
shown to have blind injustice.

All the while we spend upward of $40 billion a year nationally on the drug
war during a time of record deficits and cutbacks.

Is this really a good thing? At home, Gov. Pawlenty wants to cut education
spending, but doesn't address the drug war? Minnesota wastes upward of
three-fourths of $1 billion a year on the drug war.

I suggest our politicians revisit the harm they have caused and reconsider
the good they can do.

Otherwise, I would suggest they outlaw more harmful drugs such as alcohol
and tobacco.

Tom W. Suther, Oronoco