USE OF MEDICATION SHOULD NOT BE A CRIME

Editor -- Police are tormenting cannabis clubs again in the name of fear --
fear of drug use. It must sound strange to suggest that the use of drugs
for fun is ``OK,'' but I'm not suggesting freedom from self-control. Quite
the contrary, people can be responsible users, just like alcohol users. Not
a fair analogy, I agree.

As the law sees it, there is no distinction between war against users and
care for people. But responsible recreational drug use should not be a
crime in the first place. I assume we could agree at least that medication
should not be a crime. So says a state law.

This leaves the important issues. Crime and the hostility to minorities
caused by society's zeal for a misconceived drug war. Meanwhile, legitimate
uses of marijuana for medicine continue to struggle for tolerance.

We must require respect for humanity and values. We all need the promotion
of our welfare and our rights to make decisions for ourselves about our
needs and desires. Expecting such respect from the law and government, of
course, will be a long wait. It is only people who share pleasures and
pains, concerns, interests in each other's projects, and each other's
company, not institutions.

The least that the establishment could do is leave us alone. Our society
must recognize drug use and abuse as the medical and social problems that
they are and that they must be treated with medical and social solutions.

So stay tuned, when in the following months and years to come, our
political leaders will band together to give the help only people can give
. . . compassion. It could happen.

ROLAND V. WILSON II
Berkeley

)1998 San Francisco Chronicle