IS TAKING AWAY FINANCIAL AID FOR DRUG USE FAIR?

I am totally mortified at Salar Jahedi's column on people who take illegal
drugs ("A Drug-Free Berkeley," July 5).

I don't know where to begin, except to say that if Salar thinks marijuana
smokers are dragging this country down, he should think again. I have been
to Holland, where the Planet of the Ape drug policies we have are
repudiated. Holland has decriminalized marijuana and has made it safe to
procure (unlike in the U.S. where you buy from sleazy people). Holland also
has one of the highest gross national products in the world. Their
unemployment rate is lower than the unemployment rate in the U.S. Teen drug
use in Holland is only a fraction of the that of the U.S. They also don't
have drive-by gangster style shootings like we do. I could go on.

What I do in the privacy of my home is none of anyone's damn business.
That's what is suppose to make America great, not fanatical crusading drug
warriors with an ax to grind.

Finally, the drug warriors seem to also think that alcohol is a good drug.
You watch the superbowl with commercials promoting Budweiser and then other
commercials linking marijuana smokers to Osama bin Laden. The hypocrisy is
out there for the world to see.

If we are going to prohibit substances, let's prohibit alcohol. It has
caused more death and destruction that any other drug combined. Besides, I
despise alcoholics. But the drug warriors coddle them and feel sorry for
them, while marijuana smokers face the brutality of the American criminal
justice system.

If Salar and his controlling drug warrior friends want harsh drug laws,
please move to Singapore or Malaysia. But please, don't trash American
freedoms with your drug warrior hysteria. Just leave me the hell alone.

Sean Porter

New Orleans, Louisiana
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In his most recent column, Salar Jahedi states, "The government is by no
means obligated to support the habits of law-breaking individuals. In fact,
an individual who knows that his financial aid will be cut off if he is
caught smoking and decides to smoke anyway is not the most studious of
students. Either that, or he is ready to provide for his own education."

Not true. Students who smoke in spite of the law are doing what they
believe they have the right to do. Why should the government be able to
attack harmless pot smokers who actually want to attend college while
rapists and murderers can still get financial aid? Shouldn't we want kids
these days to want to go to college?

The problem in this country these days is education. We pay our teachers
low salaries. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush just signed a new budget for education
that gives himself a nice little raise but cuts back credits students take
in high school. This doesn't make sense to me.

I say the first priority of the government should be education. And when we
go off and punish students that actually want to learn, it upsets me
horribly. These kids actually want to go to college. They're not sitting at
mom and dad's house smoking all day while accomplishing nothing. They're in
school. Let them do what they want within reason as long as they're
learning. The best way to shape a great country is good education, and we
are moving in the wrong direction.

We need to start realizing cannabis is a part of our culture and people
will toke up no matter what. Spending billions of taxpayers' dollars to
keep pot smokers behind bars is ridiculous, and it needs to stop.

Our country and schools need to focus on more important things; weed is not
one of them.

B. Moore

Gainesville, Florida
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I support firmly Salar Jahedi's position on a drug-free Berkeley ("A
Drug-Free Berkeley," July 5). After all, Benito Mussolini made the trains
run on time in Italy and he didn't accomplish that by letting people do
whatever they wanted. Fascists have always gotten a bad rap by the liberal
media. State authority means more than life itself and anyone who dares to
go against the authority of the American state deserves to be forced into
permanent illiteracy and sentenced to a lifetime of menial servitude.

So let's tear up the Bill of Rights, put on some nice clean brown shirts,
and go out and beat up some potheads.

Patricia Schwarz

Pasadena, Calif.