To Daily Olympian

Dear Editor:

The Drug War is a keystone issue that needs our collective focus until it ends. 

I never argue the morality of drug using since that, and other regular human behavior needs refinement.  However, drug fighting should not burn so much tax money at the rate of over $600 a second.

Right now in Sequim a medical marijuana case is afoot of a 114-pound Bruce Buckner.  He has taken pains to document his need for medical marijuana as an approved treatment for Krohn’s disease, in order to be a legal patient in Washington State. 

His case is expected to be denied the use of a medical marijuana defense. By trick of definition, Washington State’s medical marijuana law is nullified by a small town prosecutor.  How can we allow this 1998 initiative--passed in a political landslide--be so subverted? 

In fact, how can any future justice budgets be controlled if any teenager can trigger a $30,000 expenditures on themselves, and damage their family’s lives in a day? Jail cells for non-violent criminals cost the same as for the violent ones, so a young drug user costs as much in taxes as a murderer.

Any number of solutions for taking dope beats arrest and jail a hundred ways.  We can balance the budgets on purpose and accidentally save the lives of many more boys.

The drug war is like Vietnam. We don’t want to be here, forgot how it happened, yet still cannot admit we got it backwards.

Bob Owen
Olympia, WA