MAKING A RATIONAL DRUG POLICY

Austin Lopez's sensible argument in his op-ed "Open your mind to
hallucinogen research" (June 8) speaks volumes to the contradictions
and inconsistencies in America's body of law, and nowhere is such
absurdity more apparent than in our drug laws, in that while we
criminalize relatively harmless drugs like marijuana, alcohol, with
its often tragic collateral damage, is perfectly legal. Pharmaceutical
companies advertise directly to consumers, through all forms of media,
drugs that are far more harmful than LSD and other hallucinogens, most
notably the psychiatric "medications."

People are beating their wives and children from drunken rage and
bashing each others brains out on the highways from drunken driving,
and countless others are dying from tobacco -- probably the most
dangerous carcinogen known to man, and others are committing suicide
from the effects of psychotropic drugs while we debate the merits of
legalizing the medical use of marijuana and hallucinogens.

I'm not the only one who sees the absurdity in this, so let's stop
talking about it and do the right thing for the people, and not for
those who continue to benefit financially from the status quo.

Charles Hilton, Baltimore