Viewpoint
Letters to the Editor
Another opinion on debateTo the editor:
Regarding the reply of Altoona Police Chief John L. Gray to Carl Olsen
(Altoona Herald Dec. 11), Chief Gray demonstrates what I have seen untold times in my
position as Executive Director of a national news gathering service on drug policy issues.
Gray, like countless community leaders, politicians and others in positions of
power, are either being deliberately disingenuous or are mind bogglingly uninformed on the
subjects of drugs, drug use and drug policy.
I was stunned that a police chief would publish a letter referring to
the defeat of a New York medical marijuana initiative. Not only were most of his
statements based on typical but wildly inaccurate "facts," but he couldn’t
even get the right state or even side of the country correct (It was actually in the state
of Washington). In addition, he misnamed and mispelled NORML (The National
Association for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) as NORMAL and had inaccuracies in virtually
every sentence of his letter.
The good police chief is most welcome to visit our web page at http://www.mapinc.org and use it as a resource for future
fact checking. Nothing will help end this expensive, failed, misguided, "war on
drugs" quicker than educating those in power as to the facts, science, and truth
which belie the inaccurate rhetoric we are so often forced to endure.
Mark Greer,
Porterville, Calif.
The Altoona Herald - Mitchellville Index
Thursday, December 18, 1997, Page 4A
Post Office Box 427
Altoona, Iowa 50009
Phone 515-967-4224
Fax 515-967-0553