Pubdate: Thu, 20 Apr 2006
Source: Duluth News-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2006 Duluth News-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/553
Author: Associated Press

ROSEVILLE WOMAN PARDONED OF PAST DRUG CONVICTION

MINNEAPOLIS - A Roseville woman who turned her life around after a 
drug conviction 28 years ago has now received a presidential pardon 
for her past crime.

Karen Edmonson began using drugs at age 11 and was a convicted drug 
dealer by 21. Now, the 49-year-old has a master's degree and has 
spent the past 20 years working on social issues, particularly addiction.

On Wednesday, she celebrated after President Bush officially forgave 
her crime 28 years ago. The pardon was one of 82 pardons and commuted 
sentences Bush has awarded.

"I felt like I had taken what was really an insane lifestyle, the 
bottom of life itself ... and made a decision that I wasn't going to 
be in a revolving door in and out of that system for the rest of my 
life," she said.

Pardons, a constitutional prerogative of the president, have been 
rare in Bush's five-plus years. Since 1900, his father, one-term 
President George H.W. Bush, has been the only president to pardon 
fewer people, with 77. President Bill Clinton pardoned 178 in his 
first seven years in office and 218 in his final year.

Edmonson said she applied for the pardon in 2001 because she wanted 
to be recognized as an asset to society. The pardon was issued Tuesday.

She said she is a Bush supporter but supports abortion rights and 
hasn't contributed to the Bush campaigns.

White House spokesman Alex Conant said Edmonson "has repaid her debt 
to society by becoming an active citizen and making positive 
contributions to her community."

Edmonson said she began using alcohol and marijuana at age 11 when 
she was living in New York. She soon began using Quaaludes, 
barbiturates, LSD, heroine, methadone and methamphetamine.

She moved to Minnesota when she was 16, and in the late 1970s she was 
caught dealing meth in St. Paul. She was sentenced to 18 months in 
prison but served a year and got clean - only to relapse into alcohol 
and cocaine use.

"When I started thinking about dealing, I thought, 'That's it, man, 
you're going to lockup,'" she said.

She has been clean for 20 years, has a master's degree and is a 
licensed psychologist, social worker, and alcohol and drug counselor. 
She ran a program at the University of Minnesota that focused on 
people with multiple addictions in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

She and her husband, Norm Skog, a recovering alcoholic who has been 
clean for 21 years, run a business called Amedco, which helps people 
get medical and mental health classes they teach accredited.

"(The pardon) truly is recognition of how she's been living her 
life," said Skog.