Letters to the Editor
The Olympian
P.O.Box 407
Olympia WA 98507

To the Editor:

Our basic Constitutional rights are being seriously eroded by
the government's waging of the futile War on Drugs.

The 5th Amendment guarantees that no person shall be deprived
of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The
U.S. Constitution notwithstanding, properties can now be seized,
under federal law, even if the owners have not committed, or even
known of the commission of, a crime on their property.

If a tenant unbeknownst to the landlord grows marijuana on or in a
property, the property can be seized without the landlord being charged with
a crime. In order to regain the property, the landlord must sue the
government (at landlord's own expense) with the burden (since this
is a civil proceeding) on the landlord to prove his/her innocence
instead of on the government to prove the landlord's guilt.

Any landlord should fear (as If do) the risk of loss of a property
situated too inconveniently or far away to be monitored for this
kind of abuse by a tennant.

Dan Baum's book " Smoke and Mirrors" documents this erosion of
property rights, and also 4th Amendment rights of privacy and
freedom from unwarranted searches that have been sacrificed in
waging the Drug War.

Doctors in California face loss of their 1st Amendment right to
even discuss medicinal use of marijuana with their patients.

This is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote
our Bill of Rights.

Sincerely y'r's,

David L. Edwards, M.D.
2715 Schirm Loop, N.W.
Olympia, Washington, 98502

(360) 8667165