Letter to the Drug Czar dated 4/12/1991
Dear Mr. Martinez:
I noticed on the news that you have now been sworn in, so I think it's about time that I included you on my list of government officials to harrass.
In brief, I disagree with the government's anti-drug campaign and I am doing everything I can to make fools of you. I am particularly upset about the new policy Stanford has adopted in response to The Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act.
I wrote a long letter to The Stanford Daily expressing my reasons for disagreeing with the law. I also mentioned that I am a drug user, that I think that drugs can be a positive influence on one's life, and that I refuse to obey the policy. I still carry illegal drugs in my backpack while on campus, in direct violation of Stanford's policy. As I expected, Stanford has done nothing about this, even though I have made them fully aware of my actions.
Meanwhile, many students have thanked me for standing up to the government and for serving as a role model of a responsible drug user. I am a popular instructor at Stanford, and teach about 500 students a year, so my pro-drug stance has gone a long way towards nullifying the government's anti-drug propaganda.
I enclose a copy of the article I wrote for The Daily and two letters that I've written since them to Ronald Bucknam of Drug Prevention Programs in Higher Education. The students that I talk to find it very encouraging that I can so openly defy government and Stanford policy without reprisal, proving my point that such policies have an effect only to the extent that people, out of fear, voluntarily change their behavior. I do not fear any of you, I have not changed my behavior, and nothing bad has happened to me. On the contrary, my stand against you has brought me additional respect, new friends, and an apparently endless stream of invitations to discuss my beliefs with students who are trying to make tough decisions about whether or not to experiment with drugs and/or whether or not to take the risk of continuing to use drugs in light of government persecution.
If your office gives you any power to try to force me to change my behavior, I suggest that you apply it immediately, because right at the moment you look rather silly at Stanford to me and the numerous students that I talk to.
Yours,
Stuart Reges
last updated 01/04/2020