ZEALOTS HAVEN'T DROPPED INSANE WAR ON DRUGS

Before September 11, the Capital Times was a strong voice against the
granddaddy of attacks on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the so-called
war on drugs.

Years of drug prohibition have created so many exemptions to our freedoms
that the recently passed and perversely named USA Patriot Act is merely the
bitter icing on the cake.

And while the Capital Times and the nation are fixated on the new war, the
old war continues with a new vengeance. The new administrator of the Drug
Enforcement Administration, Asa Hutchinson, has launched a chilling war
against medical marijuana in California, where voters passed the state's
medical marijuana law five years ago November 5. An entry in the
Congressional Record seems to indicate that several congressman including
the maniacally anti-medical marijuana zealots Bob Barr and Mark Souder,
sent investigators to the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, triggering
a raid by 30 armed DEA agents soon after their visit.

Targeting clinics and physicians as well as patient records, federal
actions have taken away legal sources of medical marijuana for thousands of
California's sick and dying citizens. As the nation struggles to deal with
an attack by terrorists from outside our country, federal agents are
themselves terrorizing sick and dying Americans in an insanely twisted
misuse of federal law enforcement resources and priorities.

The media blackout on this assault on states rights and some of our
nation's most vulnerable citizens must end. I hope the Capital Times will
renew its commitment to cover this other war.

Gary Storck

Madison