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Show UN IVERSITY JOURNAL OPINION !PAGE 10 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1000 -= LE1TERS Senate questioned on allocation of funds TO THE EDITOR: be used for academic purposes. Had an effort been made, the As a person recently committee could have only familiarizing myself with student reasoned that our group was government on campus, I have wholly academic. Any money we quickly become disillusioned by received from the senate would certain aspects of the student have been used only to help prepare students for entrance senate. As president of the pre- exams , applying to graduate medical honor society on schools, learning interviewing campus I went before the · skills, hearing from professionals student senate petitioning in the health field, etc. funding for our activities this AED [Alpha Delta Epsilon] has year. Our group was denied a helped hundreds of pre-health line item last spring and received students in its 10 years as a a small token donation from society on campus., but is never C & 0 [clubs and organizations] considered important enough to in the summer. fund. Thank you Ryan Bell for being The student senate seemed the logical place for us to go. We the only senator actually willing had witnessed the allocation of to talk directly to us about our money from the student senate plans and goals . As for the for various non-academic investigating committee and the causes on campus (i.e . other two science senators, I fraternities , sororities, was dis·appointed with their cheerleaders). op position b ased solely on Surely a group such as ours, hearsay and pre-formed whose sole purpose is to help opinions of the function of AED pre-health students enter on campus. graduate school would be The Literary Guild (a club by allocated some funding to help SUUSA's standard) was able to in our -efforts. That wasn't the walk into the senate and receive case. a well-deserved $2 ,500. Were After we presented our bill, an they sent to C & O? No. We ask "investigating committee· was that the senate make an supposed to determine if our intelligent review of Alpha needs were worth funding. Not Epsilon Delta and see that as a one member of our society' s purely academic organization we leadership was contacted by a are deserving of direct funding from the senate. member of the committee. No real effort was made to determine if the money was to Mat Harris LEAH HARTMANN COMMENTARY Stick this in your pipe and smoke it New Mexico Gov. Republican Gary Johnson, isn't Last year, alcohol was responsible for 150,000 your typical politician. The two-term governor had deaths in the U.S.; tobacco was responsible for never held public office before. Rather, he's a self- 450,000 deaths. I have not yet found a statistic made millionaire and businessman . Th is may reflecting marijuana-related deaths, but my guess is explain why he talks so candidly about our failing there were none. Marijuana is never going to have arid ailing war on drugs. He has said, "This is the the devastating effects on society that alcohol has biggest head-in-the-sand issue that exists in the had. country today." Johnson said a person shouldn't drive a car when I say right-on, Gov. Johnson. he or she has been using marijuana, and adults Johnson has dared to suggest that we legalize shouldn't give pot to minors. Marijuana can be used marijuana and other drugs. responsibly, he said-just like Johnson is a tri-athlete who alcohol. abstains from drinking , smoking O "It is abuse we must educate and caffeine, but he freely admits to against," he said. having used marijuana and cocaine That brings me to my next soap in the 1970s. box of the scare-tactic education A Letter to the editor shall be Please deliver a copy to our He no longer uses drugs and has being used to keep kids off drugs: typed and include the author's offices (TH 011) or to the SUU said, "I'm against drugs, but should the DARE program and the goofy name and phone number. The Post Office addressed to the you go to jail for doing drugs? I say ads paid for by the Partnership for phone number will not be 'Journal.' You may also e-mail no. We need to stop arresting and a Drug-Free America. printed. us at journal@suu.edu. 14 They are so far removed from locking up the whole country.· In 1999, 1.9 million people were reality, it's no wonder kids go arrested for .drug-related crimes. overboard when they start More than $50 billion-yes, billionexperimenting with drugs. If we was spent fighting drugs. had an open and honest dialogue Twenty years ago, an estimated .___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____. with our kids about drugs and their 250,000 people per year were arrested for drugs effects, perhaps we wouldn't end up with so many SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY CE DAR CITY UTAH and only $1 billion was spent fighting drugs. abusers. DIRECTING STAFF AND DESK PHONE NUMBERS: If this continues, in another 20 years, five million Johnson has suggested regulating and taxing the 1 Editor Kamilynn Savage S86-n50 people will be in jail for drugs and Social Security estimated $400-billion-a-year illicit drug industry. Aa•oci.ta Editors Jessica ~uist 586-nSO KeWI Haring 58&-7759 will definitely be long gone. "We need to make drugs a controlled sub" I'm a cost-benefit analysis person ." said stance," he said. "We ought to let the government Photo Editor Janette Reichert sas-nso Almanac Editor Stacee Chids 865-8226 Copy Editor Mindy Smith 586-1992 W.bmut8r Jansen Gunderson 586-7750 Johnson, sounding like a good businessman. "For regulate it; grow it; manufacture it; distribute it; and Focus Editor Camery Lybbert 586-1992 Ad Designer Andy Suflivan 586-n58 the amount of money we're putting into the war on market it. If that doesn't lead to decreased drug Arts Editor Ashley Adams 865-84<43 Ad Manager Cami Perkins 586-7758 drugs . .. it is an absolute failure." use, I don't know what would." Sports Editor Jasen Asay 865-8443 AdvlMr Larry Baker 586-7751 Au't Sports Editor Jason Erickson 865-8443 Writing Coach Paul Husselbee 865-8556 Currently, 60 percent of the prison population is Funny, but painfully true. seNroRSTAFFWRJTERSANDREPORTERs·~ ses.m1. S86-5488 locked up for non-violent drug offenses. Today, It is time to' stop the insanity of this lost-cause n.e u-~ .1oume1 is published -,y Monda)' a n d ~ o111e --..ic yew by and 1or 1n. .a-. there are more people per-capita in jail in the U.S. drug war. There have got to be better things to body ol Soultwn Utah Unlvet'lity. II rec.ivn advisement from the university odministration ond lrom ll'lo th d. lfflenily'scomm.o-. - - - . The ........ -opnonse,qnuec1;,,.,........., . . t11o.. o1lndivldulj an in Iran, and a 1sproportionate amount of these spend our tax dollars on, and our police must have people are black and Latino. something better to do with th~ir time than busting must be 1ypec1 and inducle.,.""""' - p11ono be pnoc1 Names wil no1 be Some inmates have families who are now on harmless pot-heads. I applaud Johnson for his wm.etd _._ a,y c:in:Lrnstances and ll'lo editor reS*Ves editing pririegn. IAtlers must be S4bnilled by sp.m ~1orincuioninMondayecffona. Wldbysp.m. Mondays1orlhl.ndeyeditiono. public assistance; their children may be headed for · common-sense plea for change . I hope more ~ 1:: 11nt to tl'le edtor." foster care. The "war- on drugs is causing as many politicians and citizens follow his lead. uMWS11y.1ouma1: 0111c:es 1n suurecmc1ogy&.ilding011. Moilo1suu. ~cay. uw,a.120. social problems as it is solving-or not solving. FAX. (435) ~ 7. E-moi1 oddreu: jcuNIIOsw.edu \ ,-m>ONREcvClEOPAPER. P\.fASERECYa.EmscOPY. For the life of me, I don't understand why alcohol Leah Hartmann is a senior communication major .___ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___,!. • ;.:.. ·' .:.. ' .:..·.e.. -' .:. ~ .:::. ·' ':-'4 ::.;: :..r ,$ t i6"1egal~but,marijuana is not. from Kem"!e~t:t vwo. ,· ,~ ,• Tc d 8Y, neaTJy f 60 percent of th · e prtSOn population iS IOCked Up ~Or non-Violent drug Offenses. =-on:.:.::==..~-:.=-:~u=--= .."'!".:.:.-=~O:::~ - ·Only.,.""""'.,.. ~~.;::::=.::,::,: =·-<Ired such.,,_ · - .... • • _..,. • '"' • • • • • • - • • • •• • • .,. • ._. • ~ • I |