Re: "Judge Denies AIDS Patient's Request for Marijuana," Wednesday, March 10: The decision of U.S. District Judge George H. King to refuse to allow Peter McWilliams the medical use of marijuana is unconscionable.

King says he cannot allow, to a possibly dying man, "what amounts to a license to violate federal law." Yet the judge himself should know two things: (1) Necessity, as in life and death, is a common-law reason to violate many kinds of laws; (2) the drug laws he is talking about blatantly and egregiously violate the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, not to mention every person's natural right to use medicine.

A judge who cannot find some reason or pretext to grant the compassionate use of marijuana to Mr. McWilliams is therefore a man without conscience or honesty: Not just a bad judge, but a bad man.

Yours truly,
Kelley L. Ross
Los Angeles

Kelley L. Ross is an Instructor of Philosophy at Los Angeles Valley College