BONGS NOT BOMBS
At a time when the nation was under high alert for terrorism, Attorney General John Ashcroft was on a marijuana jihad, wasting the Department of Justice's limited resources on a nationwide hunt for bongs ["Ashcroft Hits the Bongs"]. With long-overdue marijuana-law reform very likely in Canada, the United States may soon be one the few Western countries that uses its criminal-justice system to punish otherwise law-abiding citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.
Evidence of the U.S. government's reefer madness is best exemplified by the Drug Enforcement Administration's paramilitary raids on voter-approved medical-marijuana providers in Oregon and California. The very same
federal government that claims illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the hands of street dealers. Apparently marijuana prohibition is more important than protecting the country from terrorism.
Robert Sharpe
Drug Policy Alliance
Washington, D.C.
NOSE BLEW IT
Dear Nose: You must have been a little stuffed up on the weekend of Feb. 14-16--or perhaps you just don't have much of a nose for news [The Nose, WW, Feb. 19, 2003]. Whatever happened to journalists who actually worked to find out what is going on in a city? Maybe they all live in "Old Europe" and don't cover events in our own little Beirut.
Actually, for a curious person it shouldn't have taken much effort to scare up a peace activist and find the website that listed over 20 local peace activities that happened that weekend. For a reporter, it should have been simpler--that is, if your editors had been inclined to share press releases with you.
In any case, the peace movement is alive and well in Portland. The community of sponsoring organizations made a decision to spend the weekend building support in neighborhoods while the millions marching across the world occupied the headlines.
It is unfortunate that most of the local reporters decided that only big marches are worth covering and missed all of the community action, although a few were clever enough to actually talk to some of the people who found a different way to protest the war and build for peace in February.
Just so you won't be left out next month, plan to be at Waterfront Park, 2 pm Saturday, March 15, and you'll see lots of different kinds of people who oppose the U.S. war on Iraq and the U.S. war at home.
We'll even try to send you a press release of your very own this time so you get all the details in advance.
Bonnie Tinker
Executive Director,
Love Makes A Family
Northwest 6th Avenue
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