Pubdate: Mon, 18 Feb 2002
Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Copyright: 2002 San Francisco Examiner
Contact:  http://www.examiner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/389
Authors: Ray Carlson, Rick L. Root, and Doug Smith
Alert: http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0233.html

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."

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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

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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

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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
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MAP posted-by: Josh