Pubdate: Sat, 13 May 2000
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2000 The Media News Group
Contact:  P.O. Box 9, Chico, CA 95927
Fax: (530) 342-3617
Website: http://www.chicoer.com/
Author: Daniel Hayden

DRUG WAR TAKES INTERESTING TURN

I'd like to comment on a small article that appeared in the briefs
section May 6 headlined "Colonel's wife jailed in drug case." The wife
of Col. James Hiett was sentenced to five years in prison for mailing
five pounds of heroin to New York City from Bogota, Columbia, where
her husband commanded the military's anti-drug operation. The colonel
pleaded guilty to money laundering charges last month.

I wonder if our government is surprised to find a drug lord wearing a
U.S. military uniform profiting from "the war on drugs?" I also find
it obscene that a colonel's wife, when caught with $700,000 worth of
heroin, gets a paltry five-year prison sentence while there are people
in prison serving five years for their first offense for simple
possession of five grams of crack cocaine, and people who've lost
their homes, cars and anything else the county, state, or federal
government wants, because they were charged with possession of marijuana.

We have a dual system of justice in this country: one for the
well-connected and one for the rest of us. If the war on drugs is
going to produce mandatory sentencing and forfeiture laws, they should
be aimed at the real beneficiaries of the illicit drug trade: the
people abusing their positions in government and the banking
institutions that launder billions in drug money.

- - Daniel Hayden, Chico
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