Letters To The Editor

Tue., March 11, 1997

DRUGS

Hand out stop-smoking drugs

Our government will allow some agencies to distribute new needles to drug addicts, free condoms to some schools and different agencies to allow safe sex against AIDS and prevent unwanted pregnancies.

How about this: Daily, 3,000 teens start smoking, 1,000 of whom will die from smoking-related diseases during their lifetimes. Pharmaceutical companies claim and advertise that Nicotrol or Nicorettes will help you quit or control this terrible act. I believe that our government - which allows the manufacture of cigarettes - should in turn distribute Nicitrol and Nicorettes to any citizens, free of charge, who elects to kick this dreadful habit. Drug stores sell these items for about $50 a packet, which some people cannot afford.

Cigarettes are a narcotic; within seven seconds of taking one puff the nicotine enters your blood stream. Mike Bascetta Spokane

Could booze, tobacco pass FDA tests

Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey has said that the scheduling of marijuana (determination of its medicinal availability) should not be determined by public opinion, but should be decided by the FDA. He stated that it was dangerously unscientific for non-experts to make these decisions.

If that’s the standard, let’s apply it to America’s two most common pleasure drugs, alcohol and tobacco. If tobacco was subjected to FDA scrutiny it would be a Schedule I drug, prohibited just like heroin because it is extremely addictive and has no medicinal value.

Alcohol would join cocaine in Schedule II, having some medicinal value but still having enough potential for abuse to warrant full criminalization if used for recreation.

This points out the hypocrisy of America’s drug enforcement system. The recreational drugs endorsed by the majority have been exempted from the scheduling standards that harshly criminalize users of drugs like marijuana. Marijuana is currently used by about 20 million Americans and has been used at one time or another by 50 million others, including our president and House speaker.

All drugs should be subjected to the same standards of criminalization determined by a factual review of their potential for causing harm. Equal protection under the law demands that America’s double-standard must end. Johanna Wools Grand Coulee

Fight drugs by banning tobacco

Lately there seems to have been a lot said about marijuana being a gateway drug, and that many people who smoke pot usually go on to other, harder drugs and become a menace to society. A senator from Georgia said something to this effect in the March edition of Dear Abby.

Using the good senator’s logic, it is mostly likely that the first drug people use is tobacco. Then they move on to alcohol, then to marijuana, then to heroin or cocaine or whatever. Therefore, tobacco is the true gateway drug, not marijuana. Since marijuana cannot be legalized because of the potential for increased use of dangerous drugs, it would also be true that if tobacco was outlawed, we would have a drop in drug use of all kinds because we would be getting rid of the real gateway drug.

Don’t hold your breath on this one though. The tobacco industry would never let it happen. Ed Stowe Coeur d’Alene

PARENT SUMMIT

Summit had publicity problem

I was sad to read the article about the low turnout for the free Parent Summit on March 1, especially since the organizers put so much time into its preparation. Although 10,000 brochures had been sent out, I received one only one week prior to the event. Our grade school received a fax late on Feb. 18 and our PTA received a brochure by mail a few days later. Had the Prevention Center distributed the brochures sooner, the Parent Summit could have been announced at our monthly PTA meeting and advertised in our monthly school newspaper.

Like many other busy families with active children, our calendar is very full. It becomes a juggling act just to add one more activity, especially with short notice. The more notice given, the more likelihood to attend an event. The organizer of Family-a-Fair seem to have success with this. Hundreds of people pay money to attend their keynote presentation, even on a busy weeknight. Plus many others find time during their busy weekends to attend the fair’s numerous workshops.

The poor attendance was not due to lack of interest. At our last two PTA meetings we have discussed plans for an educational parent night. It was decided to have a guest speaker talk about effective communication and positive parenting skills and we are in the process of arranging a speaker from a local agency. The topics offered at the Parent Summit were exactly what the parents at our school are interested in learning. Nancy Brown Spokane

Group didn’t know about summit

I was extremely disappointed to read in the March 2 Spokesman-Review that Linda Thompson with the Spokane Prevention Center feels that parents don’t care about their kids. We do! However, we need to know about these opportunities for education.

I am coordinator of the Spokane Valley Tough Love Parent Support Group, and we are very concerned about drug use and violence. We welcome all pertinent information that we can receive. Had we known about this parent summit, our group, along with the other Spokane parent support groups, would have strongly encouraged our parent members and their friends to come. It’s difficult for parents to go to a meeting they didn’t know was being held.

How can parents find out about these events in the future - before they happen? Debbi Bersagel Spokane

AROUND SPOKANE

Toll could pay to fix streets

Raising taxes to pay for street repairs is not the answer. I believe if we put the toll back on the Maple Street Bridge and used this money for street repairs only, we would never have to deal with potholes again. Karl Youngren Spokane

Museum lacks money, not effort

As a volunteer in the research library at the Cheney Cowles Museum for almost 20 years, I would like to respond to Bruce Harding’s letter of Feb. 28, saying that the museum does not serve the people in outlying ares, only Spokane. How wrong he is.

Why is there no magazine or field person to help facilities outside of Spokane? Because there are no funds available for such a service. If every civil servant in the state of Washington worked as hard at their jobs as the staff at Eastern Washington Historical Society, we’d have a huge budget surplus and maybe the Legislature could turn loose with enough money to adequately fund the museum.

At present, we are housing one of the most outstanding collections of Indian artifacts in the United States, all tenderly cared for in storage because there is no room to display them. We have hundreds of nitrate negatives in the library, slowly deteriorating because there are no funds to develop them.

The areas that our collection covers range from Western Montana, North Idaho, southern British Columbia, and Eastern Washington. Folks living in those areas would be amazed at the information we have about their towns, people, schools, etc.

The museum is surviving on a shoe string and something has to be done about it now, before it is too late. It only costs $35 per family to join and the benefits are most rewarding. Jean Adams Spokane

Red light billboards donated

We at Pridemark Outdoor Advertising feel quite strongly about the dangers of running red lights. That is why we have donated free billboard space to Spokane County to assist in its education campaign to stop red-light running.

Contrary to what some have suggested, this part of the campaign, along with outdoor signs on buses donated by Washington Transit Advertising, come at no expense to taxpayers. It is a classic example of how the public and private sectors can join together for the public good.

Pridemark now and in the future will continue our commitment to help keep the Spokane area a great place in which to live and safely raise our families. Duane R. Halliday, vice president/general manager Pridemark Outdoor Advertising, Spokane

Bring on the bands

I have observed many instances of teacher dedication, at college and secondary levels, where teachers and professors encourage students to make the most of their talents. Teachers encourage literary students to prepare and submit stories, articles, theses, etc. for publication. Teachers seek scholarships for outstanding students. Coaches, on their own time, likewise seek college scholarships for athletes whose parents lack financial resources.

Yet, it saddens me when I find this evidently is not true in the case of music teachers and band instructors in high schools with large marching bands, pep bands, etc.

One would think that with the multi-thousands of dollars our secondary schools have invested in music education that every opportunity would be pursued to encourage students to display their talents, to develop poise by performing before large audiences.

For 19 years those schools have been invited, encouraged and pleaded with to allow their students to take advantage of the opportunity to display their musical talents before over 100,000 of their peers, neighbors, family members and visitors who line the city’s streets for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, yet only one of the local school district’s bands chooses to do so.

If the parade was on a week day would those band directors be more willing to cooperate?

The irony is that over 26 percent of the local population is estimated to be of Irish descent, which would be fair to say that approximately 26 percent of those students likewise have Irish roots. Andy Kelly Spokane

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