Yes on Prop 5

Editor:

On Thursday, July 31, federal Drug Enforcement (D.E.A.) agents raided a Culver City medical marijuana dispensary, tearing thru furniture, cabinets, cash drawers and an outdoor garden in search of evidence. Agents wore chest gear, black sunglasses and guns in leg holsters and arrived in several black SUVs. An employee of the dispensary said, "We might as well have gotten robbed by a bunch of thugs..."

A visitor to the dispensary said, "We heard some noise outside, and then literally they burst in - told everyone to get on the floor and put their hands behind their heads." Others said they thought they were being treated like terrorists.

Ironically on Wednesday, July 30, Barney Frank (D Mass.) in a crowded congressional hearing room announced the first marijuana bill in decades, designed to change federal marijuana laws. Last year, 830,000 marijuana arrests were made in the U.S.A. Ninety percent were for personal use.

In California, Proposition 5 is getting support across the political spectrum. It would save taxpayers billions of dollars. Prop 5 would stop letting petty marijuana possession waste court resources. Through Prop 5, low-level marijuana possession would become a infraction, rather than a misdemeanor, conserving millions in court resources and saving 40,000 people in California from the life long burden of a misdemeanor conviction. Thousands of non-violent offenders would get access to treatment instead of incarceration saving the state 2.5 billion in just a few years.

Vote yes on Proposition 5.

Roger Carter Laguna Beach