We take issue with last Thursday’s cover story about the big drug bust [“Drug bust leads to arrest,” April 5].  Daniel Charles Van Pelt, known as “DVP,” is a friendly freshman who decided to make some extra cash by providing a service for which there is great demand.  He is not a gangster or a menace and he is certainly not a threat.

The article made it sound as if Towson is a safer place now that he has been arrested.  When actual crimes are being committed (such as assault or robbery), pot-smokers are usually minding their own business smoking pot.  Where are the victims in these so-called “crimes” involving the sale or use of marijuana?

It is very sad that decades after the failed alcohol prohibition we still haven’t learned our lesson.  When the cops broke into DVP’s room, they disrupted students’ sleep, hassled other students, and made life very difficult for DVP, and for what?  To stop a few students from getting high, even though those students are going to get high anyway by finding a new dealer?  Whose interests are really being served here?

Instead of blindly supporting a war that has failed for decades, it is time we ask some important questions and re-examine the issue.

Sarah Sichina served as Vice President of the College Libertarians of Towson, 2006-2007; Events and Promotions Chair, 2007.

Dmitri King served as the Membership Chair of the College Libertarians of Towson, 2007.

This letter was also published in The Towerlight

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