Blogging for Freedom

Dear Karen Tandy, Director of the DEA

Call off your dogs. Please. Your unmarked DEA cars are getting annoying parked down my street. Your surveillance of my house is making the neighbors think there are pedophiles scoping out the kids playing. I gotta tell ya, your drive-bys and hi-tech gadgetry and way-hip undercover disguises actually look kind of silly. You’re really not fooling very many people.

I worry about all the time and money and effort and resources you are putting into me. Surely there are enough people out there who are actually committing crimes who should be investigated. I can send a list of names I got off of America’s Most Wanted, if you’d like.

I also do not appreciate the sneak and peeks I know you’ve been conducting in my home for the last seven months Like I said, you’re not fooling me. (By the way, either your agents or Homeland Security took a piece of valuable computer equipment and a jar of nickels and a jar of dimes without reporting it anywhere. Do you think you can help me get these back?)

I know what this is all about, of course. I don’t have much of a head for business but I do know that assets from drug seizures and confiscations rose from .5 billion in 2003 to 1.9 billion in 2005.  It’s all about the money and property and things that you can take under the Controlled Substance Act of 1974.

You may be succeeding in your fund-raising, but Karen, you are not winning the War on Drugs. Meth is ruining our communities, kids are overdosing and dying from alcohol and prescription pills at a heart-breaking rate. Some form of designer drugs, steroids, mood enhancers are as close as the nearest drug store. In fact, I see commercials for drugs with the potential for abuse on tv all the time. Maybe you’re not aware of it but Americans take a lot of drugs.

What I’m curious about is this – why has the War on Drugs, and now the War on Terrorism, become a War on good, decent, hard-working Americans? You all are locking up more US citizens than any other industrialized country. (Hell, the US imprisons more people than China for jeeker's sake.)  Alcoholism is considered a health issue and an illness but certain drug use is a crime. Huh?

Please tell me why the DEA and the United States Federal government has apparently made marijuana it’s number one priority? More specifically, why are you targeting, investigating, spying on, prosecuting, and incarcerating legitimate medical marijuana patients? Because the Supreme Court says you can? I’m a taxpayer and a voter and I must tell you it’s not a good enough answer.

I have to go to work now but maybe we can discuss these issues and lots more – at your convenience, of course. Feel free to email me any time.

Sincerely,

Granny Green