Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jul 1999
Date: 07/28/1999
Source: Edmonton Sun (Canada)
Author: Mark Van Honts
Comment: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor; headline by newshawk
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/letters/1999/07/lte83.html

RE: THE humorous exchange below that ends with the hilarious
parenthetical remarks to the letter. "Do present policies control
drugs? from M. Simon, Rockford, Illinois. (Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. No.
Maybe.) So we have a trillion dollars - maybe - on our hands. While we
laugh at this humorous discourse we are filling our prisons with
non-violent people, many for simple possession of cannabis. Now we
have to build more prisons to keep up. Many non-violent crimes are
committed as a result of prohibition, not consumption. We are taking
funds away from drug education and treatment.

We are sacrificing transportation funds, public education funds,
federal health care funds, social security funds, medical research
funds, public assistance funds and a hundred other types of funds that
have been proven to improve the quality of life and the standard of
living in our "free" country ...  for a trillion dollars - maybe. No
wonder the Castros, Milosevics, Husseins and Gadhafis and their
constituents have doubts about modern America's definition of
"democracy."

Mark Van Honts (Yeah! Those guys stay up all night thinking about
that.)