THE HUMANITY OF A DRUG ADDICT

Re "In one world, he was a drug addict; in another, he was a wise soul,"
April 9: I want to congratulate Diana Griego Erwin for depicting a drug
addict as a human being, a wise soul. All too often the only picture of an
addict that the media present is that of a sniveling derelict living in the
gutter, something some of them do become, helped there by our laws
attempting to prohibit drug use. More such accurate depictions might change
the public perception of addicts and encourage a more humane approach to
the drug problem than our present draconian laws.

Bob McGee, Placerville

RIGHT TO PRESCRIBE MARIJUANA

Re "Effort to muzzle pro-pot doctors argued in court," April 9: The Bush
administration is trying to limit the rights of medical doctors. How absurd
to think that a doctor would be breaking federal law by suggesting to a
cancer patient who cannot keep food or medicine down that marijuana might help.

Allowing seriously ill patients to find relief with doctor-recommended
marijuana is now legal in at least 10 states, with more on the way.
Clearly, the American people (medical doctors included) see the need to
allow patients to use a natural herb, despite the government's political
(and nonscientific) position on medical marijuana.

The people of the United States have had it with the failed policies of the
costly "war on drugs." The time is long overdue for change on the nation's
policy on marijuana.

Alan Archuleta, Davis

9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski is justly horrified
at the U.S. Justice Department's desire to punish medical doctors who
recommend marijuana therapy to patients in California. Such fanatical,
oppressive contempt for the will of the people, as it was expressed in the
overwhelming passage of Proposition 215, is clearly a nauseating attempted
subversion of the U.S. Constitution and our state constitution.

The 10th Amendment and California's state rights are assaulted and insulted
by the iron fists of the thug bureaucrats of the federal government. It's a
tremendous relief to know that true civil libertarians such as Kozinski
stand firmly opposed to the hypocrisy and dangerous neofascism of Attorney
General John Ashcroft and his ilk.

Stephen Konnoff, Sacramento