Pubdate: Tue, 08 Jan 2002
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2002 Detroit Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Forum: http://www.freep.com/webx/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: Kevin M. Hebert
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n008/a07.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/soros.htm (Soros, George)

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

I was amused by the contention raised in the Jan. 2 article about the 
effort to ease Michigan drug laws, which stated that the drug-policy 
initiatives run by the Soros Foundation are "better funded than just 
about anything." It was amusing because, a few paragraphs later, we 
learn that the federal government is spending millions of dollars 
fighting these initiatives. Most interesting of all is how 
overwhelmingly these drug-policy initiatives are approved by voters.

We all have drug users in our families and circle of friends. We are 
tired of our failed "lock-'em-all-up" policies that are great at 
filling prisons with warm bodies but have only made drugs cheaper, 
purer and more readily available than ever as supply rises to meet 
demand.

The idea that our federal government would use millions of our tax 
dollars to try to influence the way we vote seems to me to be a 
conflict of interest of the greatest magnitude.

Kevin M. Hebert

Chicopee, Mass.
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MAP posted-by: Josh