Source: SpokesmanReview Spokane, WA Contact: 29 Aug 1997 Page B7 Antidrugs racket: Better days coming So kind of Rep. Mark Sterk to reveal his linear perception of a most complex issue of our time: Illegal drugs. Regarding I685, our medical marijuana initiative, Sterk said, "I would never legalize drugs." Of course we have all kinds of legal drugs now. Billions of dollars are spent each year promoting some of our most lethal drugs to children. Look at the billboards. Look at the hydroplanes and race cars and stadiums. Look in the grocery stores and quickiemarts. Watch the Superbowl. All the protectourkids rhetoric is rotten hypocrisy. Money has smothered reason in American politics. Campain financing is an influence bazaar where for the right price you can walk away with just about anything. Lots of money there for lawmakers willing to go real low. On the law enforcement side, arrest a drunk driver or child molester or burglar and it generates no money. If a few marijuana plants are found on a propertyBingo! Seize the property, sell it and use the proceeds to find more plants on more properties and on and on. This is an ugly situation in a land becoming less and less free. And please remember, Sterk is running for sheriff. Government is not serving the voters. Government is serving the ones buying the votes. But hope is growing. Voters who understand drugs are replacing voters blinded by 60 years of bigbucks propaganda. Kneejerk politicos obsessed with spending vast sums of taxpayer money hunting down and locking up marijuana smokers might be replaced with people more willing and able to reason. Randall G. Clifford Spokane, WA