UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED

Like so many people with liberal persuasions, Norm Stamper refuses to
recognize that it is the drugs that are the problem, not the drug laws
or prison overcrowding, civil rights, social injustices, police
misconduct, ad nauseam.

I would recommend Stamper spend some time reading "What's best for
Baby M?" [special report, page one, Dec. 4]. This well-prepared,
five-page article details the travails of Seattle residents Liz Campo
and Mike Testa, who lost their home, jobs and their "Baby M" to
Washington Child Protective Services due primarily to drug use,
particularly methamphetamine.

Drug use caused Testa to nearly lose everything, including his sanity,
and to drop completely out of the programs provided by and demanded of
him by state and local rehabilitative services. His drug addiction
resulted in several episodes of domestic abuse and the attempted
murder and maiming of Campo and other uninvolved citizens.

The couple ultimately lost their child to foster care and adoption.
Testa ended up in state prison for 12 years for his violent acts.

This prisoner hardly [equates to] the sympathetic person painted by
Stamper as a "nonviolent drug offender" who in his opinion should be
released from jail and be allowed to obtain and use methamphetamine
and other drugs legally because that is his constitutional right.

I do not know how any person with an extensive law-enforcement
background can advocate drug legalization, yet [say] "... Get loaded,
commit a crime, do the time." You can't have it both ways.

William Coonce (Drug Enforcement Administration, ret.), Snohomish