HIGH JOURNALISM

I applaud Graham Boyd and Jack Hitt for detailing how the drug war has made
a mockery of the Bill of Rights ("This Is Your Bill of Rights, on Drugs,"
December). One important point, however, was left out. The fundamental
principle of liberty on which our Constitution is based was expressed by
Thomas Jefferson in his "Notes on the State of Virginia": "The legitimate
powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others."
Hence, whenever the government seeks to prevent a person from doing some
alleged injury to himself, it acts illegitimately. It is a great tragedy of
American political history that this principle was considered so axiomatic
by Jefferson and the other drafters of the Constitution that they neglected
to articulate it explicitly there.

Had they done so, misguided federal campaigns to criminalize private
behavior, such as Prohibition and the war on drugs, would have encountered
stiffer resistance.

William Fusfield
Pittsburgh