This letter was published by the Times on Tuesday, March 16, 1999. Parts that were edited in the published version are enclosed in red brackets. The cuts tone down the letter somewhat.
Wednesday, 10 March 1999
The Editors, Los Angeles Times
Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
letters@latimes.com
re: "Judge Denies AIDS Patient's Request for Marijuana," A18, Wednesday, March 10, 1999
Dear Sirs:
The decision of U.S. District Judge George H. King to refuse to allow Peter McWilliams the medical use of marijuana is [despicable and] unconscionable. [Indeed, it is rather like a crime against humanity.]
King says he cannot allow, to a possibly dying man, "what amounts to a license to violate federal law." Yet the judge himself should know two things: (1) Necessity, as in life and death, is a Common Law reason to violate many kinds of laws; and (2) the drug laws he is talking about blatantly and egregiously violate the Tenth Amendment [of the United States Constitution], not to mention every person's natural right to use [effective] medicine.
A judge who cannot find some reason or pretext to grant the compassionate use of marijuana to Mr. McWilliams is therefore a man without conscience or honesty: Not just a bad judge, but a bad man[, and an evil man. It is an outrage and a disgrace that we have to put up with this kind of thing, and with these kinds of "good German" judges, in America, just to try and enable sick people to use effective medicine].
Yours truly,
Kelley L. Ross,
Instructor of Philosophy, Los Angeles Valley College