DIFI DEFIES VOTERS ON POT

SOME "Democrat" Sen. Feinstein is. She voted for John Ashcroft as attorney
general, Asa Hutchinson as DEA director, and now John Walters as drug czar.
They are the three most rabid Cabinet nominees that the Republicans could
find.

And predictably, Ashcroft is now going after the Oregon assisted suicide law
and is savaging the medicinal marijuana dispensaries in Sen. Feinstein's
very own state, a state where medicinal marijuana is legal.

Where was her voice when the DEA raided the dispensaries? Where will her
voice be when the DEA raids the San Francisco medicinal marijuana
dispensaries? Why on earth does she not even acknowledge these events and
their impact on her very own state?

Sen. Feinstein acts as if the raids affected no one, at least no one worthy
of her notice. Sen. Feinstein is a poor representative, and we deserve
better. Whose interests does she represent if not those of the majority of
the voters in her state? I look forward to the day Sen. Feinstein loses her
seat in the Senate.

Harry D. Fisher

Woodland Hills

STATES' RIGHTS TO MARIJUANA

IN an administration that prides itself on returning power to the states,
John Walters' drug policies regarding medicinal use of marijuana would do
just the opposite and would run
counter to the wishes of the voters of California and other states.

A drug czar should work with the states, not in opposition to them. It
should not be the policy of our federal government to arrest, prosecute and
incarcerate patients whose only crime is attempting to alleviate the pain
and suffering that results from cancer and AIDS treatment.

As the primary sponsor of medical marijuana legislation in Maryland, I
commend the Legislature of California for giving the voters a voice on this
issue. Don't let the nomination of the new drug czar silence them.

Donald E. Murphy, Republican Maryland state delegate

Annapolis, Md.