Letters to the Editor

BUD, NOT BOEING

Good focus with the Drug Issue [Aug. 13]. It is time to legalize pot! Well, we can thank cigarette smokers for keeping tax dollars rolling in.

The state of Washington better be ready to jump on the bandwagon right away. We have the best marijuana the planet has to offer. I haven't seen a seed in a stash for over 25 years! How did we end up with all the scientific botanists?

My years of managing reggae music around the U.S. has put me in touch with everyone else's herbnone worth smoking. Our stuff scares the Rastas because it is so good. We better be ready to manufacture and make the money. Our state economy needs the boost. The old Kingdome would have made a great grow room. Get ready for big business. Do not lose this opportunity!

Douglas Mays

Seattle

"Law enforcement says the growers are just kidding themselves. 'Eventually they all get captured . . . ,' says Thomas O'Brien, a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesperson in Spokane" [The Drug Issue, "The Bud Report," Aug. 13]: Uh, to this reader, it appears the DEA has been fooling itself since its inception in 1973. Serving to continue the Big Lie that was begun in the 1930s.

Can anyone deny crime pays? Handsomely? People can grow gold on a weed, and some wonder why our policy is counterproductive. . . . If everyone gets busted eventually, it is hard to envision how marijuana has become our No. 1 cash crop in this country. I think the hype about B.C. bud was always propaganda created by our DEA to justify meddling in Canadian affairs concerning their moves toward decriminalization and medical marijuana. It is hard to tell the public you need to wage war on tolerant attitudes. Said propaganda always rang false, because we are flooding Canada with far more soft and hard drugs, and guns, than they ship here in a relative trickle.

Matthew Hulett

Brick, NJ

Regarding the "growers who say that B.C. bud sucks" [The Drug Issue, "The Bud Report," Aug. 13]: In California, wines of every type are produced, from award-winning, world-class red to rot-gut, paper-bag wino fodder. It's the same with B.C. bud. B.C. produces the best bud, and it produces bunk weed. You can spend $1,200 for a pound of bunk or $2,700 for the best.

Jeremiah Armstrong

Victoria, BC

I am writing to correct the insufficient context of my remarks as they appeared in last week's story by Nina Shapiro [The Drug Issue, "Cops Against the Drug War," Aug. 13]. The article failed to state, as I requested, that my opinions were my own and not those of the Mountlake Terrace Police Department. Second, the single quote that made it into the article failed to communicate my broader point, which was that the police are unfairly carrying the burden of dealing with a social predicament with underlying causes far beyond our control. In carrying that burden, we constantly imperil ourselves to little avail, because society lacks the moral courage to engage the real roots of the drug crisis. Finally, the offensive cartoon accompanying the article, which depicts a police officer lighting a joint for an emaciated man, flies in the face of what I expressed in my interview about the horrific effects of drug use, which my colleagues and I witness daily. I am truly disheartened that my calculated risk of speaking on the record was repaid with a distorted portrayal of my profession, my agency, and me.

Jonathan Wender

Mountlake Terrace

Hee hee, it's great how Knute Berger turns reality on its head [Mossback, "Why Arnold Matters," Aug. 13]. Perhaps it is his Cold War upbringing, as he says. The thing is, what's happening in California is legal. The fact that the candidates are outrageous is, well, life in California. But the torrent of outrage at Gov. Gray Davis' fumbling of the economic ball, especially regarding energy, is what's behind the outrage. Can a million signatures be wrong? What about polls that show the majority of residents have changed their minds about Davis? The fact that there is a process for recalling an elected politician if he's later deemed unacceptable should warm the cockles of Berger's heart. Instead, it instills irrational fear. Does he similarly bemoan the efforts to impeach Dubya because he did what (precious few) didn't want him to?

Berger also seems to happily forget that all the recounts sought by Gore came up in the negative. He should get off the Illegitimate President bandwagon. It doesn't become him.

Sure, Republicans are seizing the advantage, but that's politics (and, I dare say, the Dems would do the same thing). Berger lauds the Texas Dems for not showing up for work, as if that's some constitutional right. If I didn't show up for work on a regular basis, I'd be fired. Those dweebs should be, too. What losers.

Roger Clarke-Johnson

Kirkland

Knute Berger's editorial "Why Arnold Matters" [Mossback, Aug. 13] was excellent. I have closely followed politics for over 30 years, and I have been absolutely dismayed by the "win by any means" approach that some Republicans (Tom DeLay, the late Lee Atwater, etc., not to mention certain members of the U.S. Supreme Court) have adopted. Everything, irrespective of truth, is viewed as a tactical matter. These people don't understand, or don't care, that their methods are destroying the legitimacy of government itself. Berger is correct that they have a "war" mentality. Unfortunately, at the moment, they appear to be "winning" the war.