Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 2004
Source: Quad-City Times (IA)Copyright: 2004 Quad-City Times
Contact:  http://www.qctimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/857
Author: Mozella Stokes

NUNN IS EXAMPLE OF THOSE CAUGHT IN TRAP

I am writing because for years I have been silent. Today I made a conscious 
decision to break the silence in regard to American drug laws, especially 
in reference to African-American and Hispanic men and women.

As I read the story regarding Michael Nunn, my heart was filled with 
sadness because he is yet another statistic of a young man caught up in a 
vicious cycle of illegal drugs in America. Another young man that has been 
kicked to the curb, who fell between the cracks and has lost the next 24 
years of his life in a system that has been set up to trap what I believe 
is a targeted segment of the American population.

Prisons are filled to capacity and over because many men and women are 
given sentences that are unbelievable in comparison to child molesters, 
rapist and in some cases those who commit murder. Those that are filling 
the prisons do not have the means nor the methods to bring illegal drugs 
into America.

I do not condone the actions of the young men and women who consciously 
make decisions to break the law, but I hate the system that sets them up to 
fall prey to the life of illegal drugs. A system that makes illegal drugs 
available and sucks the life out of those who fall prey to it.

God help us all.

Mozella Stokes

Davenport
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