ATTACK LETTER

I am beginning to wonder what the motives are of the people who are in
charge of picking letters for the Voice of the People. In the June 7 paper,
there is a letter that is nothing more than a personal attack on a woman
who wrote a few weeks ago about legalizing marijuana. The writer doesn't
even back his obvious opinion against legalizing marijuana, he just
questions the intelligence of the woman who wrote the first letter, and
then wonders if she even has a job. Now the author of the first letter
won't even be able to defend herself as The Tribune has a policy against
letting someone reply when their letter has been criticized. I would like
to ask those at the Tribune how they would like to have their intelligence
questioned/assaulted, in the local paper, and then not be able to refute?
The next thing you know, you'll be printing letters that say "my neighbor
is a jerk, and his wife is ugly."

Rhonda Flanagan

Granger

Drug Gravy Train

What is this country coming to? A June 6 letter to the Voice of the People,
written by a pastor no less, calls for public executions of drug offenders.
I guess the writer never bothered to ask himself what Jesus would do. Drug
prohibition does fund terrorism in countries like Colombia, but the drug
war's collateral damage hardly justifies more of the same tough-on-drugs
policies. The drugs-terror argument is nothing more than a shameless
attempt by government bureaucrats to justify drug war budgets during a time
of shifting national priorities. The illicit drug of choice in America is
domestically grown marijuana, not Afghan heroin or Colombian cocaine. Drug
war bureaucrats know this.

The opportunistic drug-terror rhetoric coming out of Washington may lead
Americans to mistakenly conclude that marijuana smokers are somehow
responsible for Sept. 11. That's likely no accident. Taxing and regulating
marijuana would derail the drug war gravy train. As long as marijuana
remains illegal and distributed by organized crime, consumers will continue
to come into contact with drugs like cocaine and heroin. Naturally the
government bureaucrats whose jobs depend on a never-ending drug war prefer
to blame the marijuana plant itself for the alleged "gateway" to hard drugs.

Robert Sharpe, Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.

Real Criminals

To the bloodthirsty pastor who would shoot drug users for so-called support
of terrorists, I suggest he also advocate lining up his congregation and
executing them. The real support of terrorism comes from Muslim
oil-producing nations, not drug dealers. Using the pastor's twisted logic
makes his church-goers the true traitors for filling their tanks with Arab
oil and driving to church.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Pastor.

Mark Bales

Ligonier