Pubdate: Wed, 07 Mar 2012
Source: Delta Optimist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc
Contact:  http://www.delta-optimist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1265
Author: Allan Randell
Referred: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n157/a04.html?1094

DUTY TO ABOLISH AN UNJUST LAW

Editor:

Re: Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's moral, letter to the editor, Feb. 24

The writer posits that a proposal to legalize marijuana is tantamount
to ensuring that "criminals are never morally culpable for their
deeds." This is wildly off the mark.

Many so-called immoral activities are not criminal offences, lying to
your spouse, for example. The hammer of criminal law should fall upon
only those who directly harm others.

The use of criminal law to prohibit activities that are adjudged by
the state to be harmful to those indulging in them is a clearly
egregious abuse of the law.

The writer seems to forget that, sometimes, Parliament passes an
unjust law, for example, the "ethnic cleansing" of B.C. during the
Second World War. Did reversing that law ensure those "criminals" of
Japanese descent are "never morally culpable for their deeds?" I think
not.

The prohibition of certain recreational drugs is an unjust law. We
have a civic duty to persuade Parliament to abolish it.

Alan Randell
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.