Blogging for Freedom

 July 8, 2006

Dear Karen Tandy, Director of the DEA,

Last year, Joseph Duncan, a convicted child molester, came to northern Idaho and committed one of the most horrific crimes our community has witnessed. He entered the Groene home, bludgeoned the two adults and older teen to death, then kidnapped the younger two children, keeping them for sexual assault. After Shasta Groene was discovered some months later, the facts about Duncan’s past came to light. Most striking is that he was on the run from another child molestation charge in another state. Because he was a fugitive from justice who represented a grave threat to children in any community in America, the federal government could have made catching Duncan a priority and used its vast resources to hunt him down before he did any more damage.

Problem is, the federal government isn’t interested nearly so much in people like Duncan. No, at the same time Duncan jumped bail on child sexual charges and made his way to Idaho, the federal government had me under surveillance and investigation. While Duncan was attacking the family, I had 14 federal DEA agents raiding my home. My crime? I’m a medical marijuana patient and activist. Federal government undercover agents saw me at a public meeting, put me under surveillance and within ten days were storming my house and threatening me with 10 to 20 years in federal prison.

Again, my crime? Allegedly, I was growing cannabis plants in my basement in my own home – along with my heritage tomatoes, sunflowers, valerian, sage and Sweet Williams.

It’s a matter of priorities. I contend that if the federal government put as much time, energy and resources into preventing, investigating, prosecuting and locking up child sexual offenders as they do marijuana offenses, then we wouldn’t have so many criminals like Duncan preying on our children.

What do you think, Karen?  There's only so many federal dollars to go around. Would you rather put someone like me in prison or someone like Joseph Duncan?

Sincerely,

Granny Green