CUSTOMS PRIORITIES

To the Editor;

The new head of the U.S. Customs Service says terrorism has displaced drugs
as his central concern. "Terrorism is our highest priority, bar none,"
Robert Bonner declared. "Ninety-eight percent of my attention as
commissioner of customs has been devoted to that one issue" (October 2001).

U.S. Customs receives budget increase of $66.4 million for "Fight against
terrorism" (December 13, 2001).

Mr. Kelly why are we chasing cannabis on Rt. 37 when clearly our priorities
are terrorist? (Border Patrol Has Big Impact, Sun, Feb 10, 2002).

The impact is not cannabis seizures. In the DEA's own estimation, only
about 10 percent of the illegal drugs coming into the United States are
intercepted.

For the last two decades, our leaders have treated the enforcement of drug
laws as the moral equivalent of war. On Sept. 11, it became blindingly
clear that there really is no moral equivalent of war.

War, we were reminded, is when foreign enemies are trying to kill as many
of us as they can. Cannabis users don't have that mission. The Al Qaeda
terrorists do.

We don't send cops out to arrest alcoholics because they abuse liquor, or
imprison smokers because they have a tobacco habit. Why, then, is the use
of marijuana a law enforcement matter? If illegal drugs are so obviously
harmful to people's health, why is it necessary to put so many American
adults in prison to prevent them from using these drugs?

Mr. Kelly, surely you have noticed the federally led multi-agency drug
raids lately! That's the real impact.. How long can tax payers pay for both
the feds and local agencies to do the same job? Will each agency take
credit for the raids to verify budget increases?

Nowadays, we see our true priorities more clearly. Terrorist not the
neighbor that uses cannabis.

Larry Seguin, Lisbon, New York