87 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
87 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
From dali.cs.montana.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!stanford.edu!neon.Stanford.EDU!news Thu Apr 25 11:43:42 PDT 1991
|
|
|
|
If you've heard anything about the instructor that the government is trying to
|
|
get Stanford to fire because of his advocacy of drug use and his refusal to
|
|
obey campus drug policy, that's me. My life has been unbelievably hectic since
|
|
then.
|
|
|
|
Several people have asked that I post my story to various newsgroups. I don't
|
|
read these groups very often (I'm a local bboard person mostly), so I'm not
|
|
sure what rules of etiquette apply. I'm going to make a guess that the
|
|
following is acceptable. I have been advised that readers of alt.drugs,
|
|
talk.politics.drugs and alt.privacy all might be interested in my case. I'm
|
|
posting this message to all of the groups. I have two lengthy files that I'm
|
|
going to post afterwards to alt.drugs. The first is an editorial that I wrote
|
|
for The Stanford Daily back in November expressing my intentions and th second
|
|
is an article I wrote for the Daily this week describing events since then.
|
|
|
|
These are lengthy files, so I apologize in advance if this action is offensive.
|
|
In my defense, I'll say that at least I posted to only one of the groups. In
|
|
case I've misjudged and actually people are angry at me for not posting the
|
|
files to all three boards, I'll again apologize in advance and suggest that
|
|
readers of the two ignored groups can repost my articles. In fact, I'll
|
|
actually state in case anyone is worried about it that anyone can distribute my
|
|
articles and messages as widely as they want to anyone and everyone and through
|
|
any and all media (what a blank check!).
|
|
|
|
Let me again apologize in advance, but the rest of this message is an unedited
|
|
repeat of a message I sent to Stanford's su.etc newsgroup. I have a million
|
|
messages to respond to an I just don't have the time to write something new or
|
|
to edit this one so as to be more comprehensible to people outside Stanford.
|
|
|
|
Here's the story in brief. Back in October I wrote an article to The Daily
|
|
outlining my objections to drug laws in general and to Stanford's new policy in
|
|
particular. Since then, I have been writing to many government officials. One
|
|
of them finally answered. Bob Martinez, the new federal drug czar, sent a
|
|
letter to Don Kennedy basically demanding that Kennedy deal with me or Stanford
|
|
was in jeopardy of losing federal funds (just what Don wanted to here right
|
|
now!). Three major violations are the basis of the case:
|
|
|
|
o the fact that I have stated publicly that I carry illegal drugs in
|
|
my backpack while on campus
|
|
|
|
o the fact that I allowed two sophomores who were under 21 to order a
|
|
before-dinner alcholic beverage at a dinner I hosted and that I will
|
|
pay for out of my unrestricted funds
|
|
|
|
o an incident around Thanksgiving where I advised a student to
|
|
experiment with MDA
|
|
|
|
Bob Martinez and Ken Down (the Associate Dean who suspended me) seem most
|
|
concerned about the third item above. Oddly enough, I am convinced that the
|
|
third item is protected free speech, but Martinez and Ken Down don't see it
|
|
that way.
|
|
|
|
I regret now having said anything about the alcohol incident. I have no
|
|
particular desire to become a significant advocate for underage drinking. I do
|
|
feel that those over 18 should be allowed to drink alcohol if they want to, but
|
|
it's not as big an issue to me as the issues of violation of privacy and
|
|
limitation of free speech.
|
|
|
|
I'm kind of exhausted from a long day of talking to reporters and dealing with
|
|
this situation, so I'm not going to say anything more for now. I will,
|
|
however, mention that my October daily article can be found in the file
|
|
daily9.txt and that I have written a statement of my view of the current
|
|
situation that can be found in the file daily10.txt. These files are stored on
|
|
my various computer accounts (n.nutrasweet@macbeth, reges@leland,
|
|
stuart@sunburn) and are publicly readable. Macbeth supports anonymous login if
|
|
you are on a different machine. In addition, I've made a packet with a
|
|
hardcopy of both of those articles along with the letters from Martinez to
|
|
Kennedy and Ken Down to me and I've left copies of that packet outside my
|
|
office in Tresidder (room A-208 on the second floor, near the AIRPort).
|
|
|
|
p.s. I will end just by noting something about press coverage. The article in
|
|
the Chron this morning makes me sound like some kind of devil who is
|
|
spending university money to give alcohol to kids while the article in the
|
|
Times Tribune made me sound like a valued member of the Stanford community
|
|
who was standing up for his beliefs about drug laws. It's amazing what a
|
|
contrast there is in the tone of the articles. I have no idea of what to
|
|
expect tomorrow. The Washington Post has talked to me for over two hours
|
|
on the phone and paid to have a photographer spend an hour with me today
|
|
taking pictures of me, Hoover Tower, and the backpack (I thought it was
|
|
very funny when they asked me, "Do you have any objection to having the
|
|
backpack in the picture?"). They sound like they're going to write an
|
|
article that is sympathetic to me, but that's the way a good reporter
|
|
always sounds, so that you tell him more than you should (and I probably
|
|
did). Oh well, we'll see...
|