RAVENEL'S DRUG STANCE STIRS REACTION

I want to clarify my position on drugs. Schuyler Kropf asked me if I
thought cocaine and marijuana should be legal and I said yes, but that
would never be my policy initiative nor was it the object of my op-ed.
As I told Schuyler, my position was to repeal prohibition as it was
done in 1933.

In 1933, the repeal of alcohol prohibition didn't legalize the sale of
alcohol at the federal level.

It simply turned it over to the states.

One of the reasons our country works so well is that we have
federalism (at least we used to), which means according to the Tenth
Amendment (the powers clause) that we delegate powers not enumerated
in the Constitution to the states or to the people.

The states are the laboratories of democracy. They can give us 50
different policies, and we can all evaluate the results.

If one state gets it right the other states can replicate the
successful policy and if one state gets it dreadfully wrong that
wrongheadedness doesn't infect across the state line.

Thomas Ravenel

Church Street

Charleston