STANDING UP AGAINST INJUSTICE

You brand Thomas Ravenel as 'playing the victim.' Then you add to his
victimization by denigrating him as a drug law reformer.

Yes, he is a victim of both your editorial and the drug laws. When he
broke the existing law, he knew he was running the risk of paying the
consequences however unjust. So did anti-abolitionists when liquor
drinking was illegal. So did freedom fighters when racial
discrimination was legal. So do prostitutes who have no other way to
make a living.

I do not understand the logic that leads our populace to think it is
any of their business whether I drink liquor, use marijuana or
cocaine, or patronize a prostitute, provided the prostitute is not
under coercion.

I think, like Ravenel, that such laws are a violation of our civil
rights. This country saw the error of its ways with regard to liquor.
Why not the others? Is it because many of us still want to control
others with regard to behavior which we think is immoral? How do we
justify making criminals of people merely for possessing marijuana?

Surely decriminalizing the possession and use of drugs, as with
alcohol, would result in thousands fewer people in jail for behavior
which was harming no one.

It would also enable the government to license and control the sale of
these products, thus eliminating the profitability for the underworld
drug lords. Let's get on with it.

Frank S. Hay Jr.

Franke Drive

Mount Pleasant