Letters for October 24, 2013

Blame ‘Slutoween’ on women?

Re “Men can be Halloween ‘whores,’ too” by Raheem F. Hosseini (SN&R Essay, October 17):

If women didn't buy “slutty” costumes every year, manufacturers would stop making them. Likewise, if women stopped entering these “House of Whores” types of contests, clubs would stop promoting them. Women are “exploited” every Halloween because they allow themselves to be.

Felix Vasquez

via email

Why does the city mess with Food Not Bombs?

Re “Sacramento threatens Food Not Bombs for feeding hungry in downtown park” by Nick Miller (SN&R News, October 17):

Why do police fuck with the poor? Simply put: Because they can. I think the police should only be worried if the group Food Not Bombs suddenly changes its name to Bombs Not Food.

If the real issue is about food safety, I understand and wouldn’t want people getting sick. However, let’s say rich people were in the park handing out food to the rich, or FNB was handing it out to the rich: Would the police step in? Probably not, because the rich have power, and maybe an officer would lose his job, or at least get his hand slapped. I think Cesar Chavez would be having a fit if he knew what was going on in the park named after him.

A lot of the SN&R articles are really anger-inducing, but I think they do need to be told. Nice work, SN&R. Now I have to go offline to get my blood pressure down.

Noah Kameyer

via email

Marijuana rescues alcoholics

Re “Weed over booze” by Ngaio Bealum (SN&R The 420, October 17):

Many marijuana smokers have turned their lives around by putting down the bottle and picking up the marijuana pipe. These former alcoholics no longer wake up with debilitating hangovers. They are no longer at risk of overdose death.

Because they have chosen a safer alternative to alcohol, they now lead productive lives. Yes, some marijuana users have substance-abuse problems stemming from traumatic life experiences. The last thing they need is Big Brother testing their bodily fluids and threatening jail time.

This type of coerced “treatment” is what modern-day marijuana prohibitionists are advocating. It’s increasingly clear that full marijuana legalization is inevitable. Drug-war profiteers are hoping to keep the prison-industrial complex alive and bloated by marrying it to the drug-treatment industry. Legitimate substance-abuse treatment providers have reason to be skeptical. Forcing pot smokers to relapse into alcoholism is not a good use of tax dollars. The war on marijuana is a cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public-health campaign.

Robert Sharpe

policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

More letters!

Re SN&R Letters:

Dudes, I’ve been a weekly SN&R reader since you guys were only about six to eight pages long, and always, the Letters section was one of my favorites. Those pages, The Sacramento Bee’s letters to the editor and the letters and comments in the Bee’s Sunday Forum, I read all the way through.

I love reading what’s on other people’s minds and their opinions on issues. Well, now, you keep shrinking this section till it’s only three letters. Fatten it back up! I can’t be the only one pissed off about this trend of yours. I even want to read the bad letters.

Larry

Ray’s Auto Stereo

Sacramento