Two Letters I received

To our 2 Paragraphs Family,

As many of you are aware, back on April 8, 1992 I did something unusual for a sitting trial court: I held a press conference at which I told anyone who would listen that I believed that our nation’s policy of Drug Prohibition had failed, and that it was time that we changed away from it. Then recently I was going through some old files and came upon the following two letters that I received as a result of that press conference. They were typical of the responses I received and, as you can see, they were quite a bit different. Here is the first one:

April 20, 1992

Judge Gray,

This a letter of support and encouragement for your position on the legalization of “drugs.” Such candor and courage is rare in our public officials today.

As a recovering alcoholic and ( ) school teacher, I am involved in issues of chemicals and their usage.

I view our American society as our American family and unfortunately, with respect to drugs, our American family is a dysfunctional family. We have our controlling punishing father at the head of our family, as represented by our criminal justice system. This leader, or controller, is attempting to discipline some of its children, those going through the criminal system. Tragically, many of those going through the system are so disfunctionally disconnected from our national family that they carry on their lives in rebellion and confusion. They don’t understand because they don’t connect.

As our family punishes more and more with more jails, laws, mandatory sentencing, etc., etc., the problems stay the same. It just appears too simple and profound to begin to offer treatment instead of so much of the belt. Treatment would prove to be less expensive and, more importantly, more connective. How many more can we punish and punish with no end in sight?

Again, much support and encouragement.

Sincerely,

And the second letter:

June 7, 1992

Dear Sir,

I am a voting citizen of the state of California, in Orange County. Do not legalize marijuana or cocaine or heroin. My reason is marijuana is a depressant and I will never stop fighting for my rights and those of my children to live in a drug free country. I will tell my friends about your injustice to my drug-free future in 1996.

Sincerely,

Do you believe that times have changed much since these two letters were sent?

Just wondering.

Judge Jim