Success or failure depends on your perspective

Editor:

I want to offer another perspective to the May 12 article (online at http://www.havredailynews.com) titled "AP Exclusive: Mont. goes its own way on marijuana." The story details a crackdown on businesses in plain sight and says the resulting prosecutions were "widely seen as a success and possibly a model for others." The author forgot to account for some things in his "final scorecard" of 33 convictions.

Most importantly, a death toll is omitted. Richard Flor was a registered caregiver in Montana and the first indicted defendant to be sentenced. An aging Vietnam veteran, Flor's family warned the judge that he would not survive prison. Flor died four months into his five-year sentence. His widow is serving a two-year prison sentence for working as a bookkeeper.

The article mentions a "three year investigation" that culminated with a trio of statewide sting operations, but the DEA first began investigating Flor in 2006. His business partner, Chris Williams, wasn't sentenced until February of this year. This brings me to another fact noticeably absent in the scorecard: the financial toll.

Between funding a six-year investigation into Flor and the costs of two separate jury trials, the amount of taxpayer dollars squandered is unfathomable. This doesn't begin to account for the death of a beloved family member and the imprisonment of dozens of legitimate business owners and employees. The costs to society are immeasurable. To call it a "success" is a tragic characterization of an alarming waste of money and human lives.

Kari Boiter

Native Montanan currently living in Seattle