Pubdate: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Copyright: 2000 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper. Contact: 501 N. Calvert Street P.0. Box 1377 Baltimore, MD 21278 Fax: (410) 315-8912 Website: http://www.sunspot.net/ Forum: http://www.sunspot.net/cgi-bin/ultbb/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro Author: Robin Ficker Boyds STATE'S DO-NOTHING SENATORS LEAVE DRUG PLAGUE UNCHECKED I've noted with interest The Sun's series of editorials dealing with the long-term neglect by Maryland elected officials of probation violations and lax sentences in Baltimore City ("Violent crime pays in city of soft sentences," editorial, Dec. 18). The Sun knows, as I do as a lawyer for 27 years, that the underlying cause of these problems is the distribution and use of mind-altering illegal drugs in Baltimore. Maryland's two U.S. senators, Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski, were elected to their posts in 1976 and 1986, respectively. They both live in Baltimore, where they have been surrounded on a daily basis by this drug problem. What successful initiatives has either ever launched to interdict the flow of drugs into the city? Using the editorial hammer, while welcome, seems a trifle disingenuous as The Sun has endorsed these do-nothing-on-drugs senators without interruption. Robin Ficker Boyds - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager