WRITER'S DEFENSE DOESN'T ACQUIT DRUG USE BY PROFS

Lane Russell, in his Jan. 13 response to Kenneth Evans' Dec. 2 column ("Just
say 'no' to faculty drug tests"), offers what may be a correct assessment of
Mr. Evans' position concerning drugs and academia.

Even if a professor brings to the classroom a unique drug experience, it
doesn't follow that his psychedelic deluge has endowed him with insights a
sober mind could not deliver. Even if we assume drug use does provide such
insight, this does not constitute a justifiable basis for opposing the
proposed drug policy. It would be better to mount one's case solely on the
issue of personal rights and withhold one's subjective (and in Evans' case,
statistically unsupported) viewpoints.

Even if the drug policy is not adopted, does it follow that our professors
and teachers will use drugs? Should drug-enthusiasts require teachers and
educators to carry under their belts a drug experience on the basis that,
without it, the quality or depth of their delivery in the classroom or the
content of their lecture would be diminished? Or, will the students be
permitted to screen the teacher prior to the beginning of the course? If so,
a student can always withdraw, but doing so will establish an undesirable
precedent.

The haughty arrogance of presuming that drug use endows one with a richer
understanding of reality than lack of use, when many of our interpretations
of reality are already so subjective, is preposterous. Many religions claim
to possess special insight into the nature of reality - if I am a highly
religious person, should I devalue the insight and lectures of my
unbelieving professor? Like drug use, this private issue shouldn't even be a
concern to a student sitting in general physics, introduction to philosophy
or beginning karate.

It is a paradox of our current cultural climate that, while everyone's ideas
and beliefs are supposedly equal, the champions of political correctness
often enshrine certain minority viewpoints as uniquely endowed, even
superior. Whatever one's position on a given drug policy may be, let's not
lay the groundwork for a cultural situation whereby personal preferences
against drug use are defamed.

Malachi Martin graduate student print cataloging specialist University
Libraries