DROPPING THE BALL ON POT LAWS

It was good to see you noted the recent recommendation by a Canadian Senate
committee that Canada "legalize marijuana and regulate it like tobacco or
alcohol" ["Expresso," Sept. 12].

Meanwhile, here in the states, it's hard to find a politician who doesn't
think that even medicinal marijuana is a stretch, even while painting the
U.S. as the nation with the most freedom. Meanwhile, U.S. medicinal pot
users are fleeing to Canada in droves to escape persecution and prosecution
here in the "land of the free."

But with most of Europe moving toward ending marijuana prohibition, and
Canada OK'ing medical use last year and looking at a plan for legalizing
and regulating cannabis that goes much farther than even nations like the
Netherlands and Switzerland, it's beginning to look like people in other
countries now have more rights than Americans.

Meanwhile, even in states such as California, which have legalized
marijuana for medical use, the Bush administration is sending out
militarized DEA agents to storm medicinal pot gardens, terrorizing patients
and stealing their medicine. With two dispensaries raided in just a week,
and six in the last year, Bush's claims of being a "compassionate
conservative" have proved to be mere rhetoric as is his campaign promise to
let states set their own policies on medical marijuana.

Gary Storck

Madison