LOTS OF SMOKE:

Many readers felt moved to write about the recent fed raids on pot
shelters in The City and the Bay Area. One G.P., a native, offers a
sort of backhanded compliment: "The Bush regime is scaring a lot of
Americans, perhaps it will wake them up and they will start voting
more." From North Beach beat John Raymond: "The feds are going up in
smoke/their local raids a tacky joke;/the message San Francisco
got--/the DEA has gone to pot."

Wrong Man Behind Bars

THE raid on the Sixth Street pot club was a debacle ("Feds vs. S.F.
on pot," The Examiner, Feb. 13). What was worse was watching Asa
Hutchinson as he addressed the Commonwealth Club, wearing that
insipid smile as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, knowing
simultaneously that someone like Ed Rosenthal, a pioneer in the
medical marijuana movement, was behind bars, accused of being part of
some international drug ring.

Then I thought of Ken Lay and Enron officials, who every night sleep
in the privacy of their many mansions, never concerned that their own
privacy is going to be invaded, regardless of the blustering of
Congress.

It's a corrupt system. Those who steal from the poor are rewarded
with wealthy homes and fat incomes, paying no taxes but earning tax
rebates, while those who provide medicine to the ailing are sent off
to jail as if they were criminals.

Ray Carlson Redwood City

Cannabis Terror?

ACCORDING to reports, Attorney General John Ashcroft warned that we
should be on high alert to guard against possible terrorist activity
on Feb. 12.

The only events of note that I found that day were our Drug
Enforcement Administration using its resources to raid a medical
marijuana dispensary in The City. Later that same evening, DEA
administrator Asa Hutchison spoke at The Commonwealth Club before a
less-than-impressed audience to defend his agency's policies on his
administration's National Drug Control Strategy ("Feds vs. S.F. on
pot," The Examiner, Feb. 13).

Presumably the federal drug czar, John Walters, was busy arraigning
for more ads telling us that a toke of pot is the moral equivalent of
flying a jetliner into a skyscraper.

I'm sure some seriously ill citizens in San Francisco wish the
terrorism alert had been more specific.

Rick L. Root Westminster

Not Conserving Pot

ONCE again, the compassionate conservative has proven his label to be a lie.

As shown in the story "Feds vs. S.F. on pot" (The Examiner, Feb. 13),
there is no compassion in the administration for either the ill or
the voters of this state.

Interesting, considering that this is the party that would most seem
to be for state's rights.

Mr. Bush and his men must be stopped. If we don't stop him, we will
continue to pay the price with our very freedom.

Doug Smith The City