Writing in National Review Online, Deroy Murdock slammed the Bush administration this week for its odd law enforcement priorities which seems to involve focusing on marijuana users rather than terrorists.
Murdock notes that the FBI warned a couple weeks ago of possible terrorist attacks occurring on or around Feb. 12. So did the FBI beef up security around landmarks and obvious targets? No, instead on February 12 Drug Enforcement Agency officers raided outlets in San Francisco and Oakland, California, where AIDS patients go to buy medical marijuana. As Murdock writes,
Three of the center’s associates face between five and 40 years in federal prison. Officials say James Halloran, 61, grew more than 1,000 marijuana plants in Oakland. That could cost him ten years to life behind bars. Compare these staggering potential terms to the actual penalties two men received January 31 for unwittingly helping 9/11 hijackers Abdulaziz Alomari and Ahmed Alghamdi secure bogus Virginia I.D. cards. Victor Lopez-Flores got 27 months in prison while Herbert Villalobos earned a four-month sentence. His previous 18 weeks in custody earned his immediate release.
The odd thing, of course, is that voters in California approved a medical marijuana initiative in 1996 and these marijuana clinics are operating legally under California law. Where is the Bush administration’s supports for state’s rights now?
Murdock concludes that, “Washington must rearrange its priorities. Neither cancer patients nor classic rockers who use marijuana will murder another 3,000 innocent civilians in cold blood. Every federal agent who stops pot smokers from lighting up is one less agent who can prevent Americans from blowing up.”
Source:
Wrong War: Wasted resources. Deroy Murdock, National Review Online, February 19, 2002.