Letters
"The rhetoric [in your article] was the 'same old, same old' call
to organize a new war on drugs."
-Linda Standridge '71 ('72)
Simply a Bad Idea?
It astounds me that Peter Ferrara '79 can blame the Democrats for the
failure of the president's proposal to privatize a portion of Social
Security, as described in "26 Years Later"
(Summer 2005 Bulletin). The
last time I looked, Republicans held the presidency and control of both
Houses of Congress. How then can the failure be a "GOP capitulation to
the Democrats"? Could it be instead that privatization, at least in the
form proposed, was simply a bad idea?
Richard Borgeson '69
Katonah, N.Y.
Sidebar Stays Inside the Box
In the summer 2005 Harvard Law Bulletin, I was very happy to see an
article on the so-called "War on Drugs"--with
all the damage it has
caused to our country, it's really a "War Against the People" and their
rights to private choices. The story was in keeping with the sentiment
expressed on the cover, "breaking free from old thinking about criminal
law."
In a refreshing statement, Ethan Nadelmann '84, head of the Drug Policy
Alliance, a New York City-based policy group, said: "If we're lucky, our
grandchildren will recall the global war on drugs of the late 20th and
early 21st centuries as some bizarre mania."
But I was shocked to see on the very next page the article "Rx for a
Public Health Problem: A Public-Private Partnership at HLS Looks to
Limit Illegal Internet Drug Sales." The rhetoric was the "same old, same
old" call to organize a new war on drugs. The moral high ground is as
usual "to save the children."
In fact, adults suffering from serious medical concerns have welcomed
this Internet activity, because their doctors, in fear of having their
lives destroyed by police actions of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, avoid prescribing medications for pain and anxiety
conditions. There is a chronic undermedication for pain in this country.
Some sufferers have been so desperate that they have committed suicide
rather than live in extreme pain. Some people move abroad to find
doctors who can prescribe following their medical judgment, unimpaired
by terror campaigns of police looking over their shoulders. The police
do not have the medical knowledge to understand the subtleties of the
doctor/patient relationship and should not interfere.
Linda Standridge '71 ('72)
Huntington, Mass.
Guidelines Will Continue to Guide
This is written in the hope of answering the question left by the
article on sentencing guidelines
in the Harvard Law Bulletin (Summer
2005): Will the Booker decision be followed by sentencing disparity in
the federal courts?
I was a member of the committee that issued a report titled "Sentencing
Guidelines: Structuring Judicial Discretion," dated October 1976. It
stated: "The guidelines system, in brief, takes advantage of and
incorporates the collective wisdom of experienced and capable sentencing
judges by developing representations of underlying court policies."
The guidelines represent the expected decisions of sentencing judges
crystallized in a statistical system that takes account of the
characteristics of each defendant and the gravity of the offense. Thus,
I expect that they will be followed in the vast majority of cases.
Leo Yanoff '33
Judge (retired)
New Jersey Superior Court
Maplewood, N.J.
What Life Is All About
The spring issue of the Harvard Law Bulletin impressed me greatly.
"Giving Back" is what life is all about. Lawyers do hold a "sacred
public trust," and "all of us have an obligation to society."
As the daughter (age 87) of a lawyer and the sister of Erwin Griswold, I
am proud of the profession and of the emphasis Dean Elena Kagan is
promoting for HLS.
I know Erwin was hard on women law students, but they were admitted
under his administration. He reflected his era, and I am grateful (I
believe he would be also) for the direction the dean is pursuing.
Hope Griswold Curfman
Denver
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